Method and apparatus for interference mitigation utilizing antenna pattern adjustments

ABSTRACT

A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, a method for receiving interference information, identifying a plurality of interferers, approximating a location of the plurality of interferers, and adjusting an antenna pattern of an antenna. The method can include determining traffic loads and adjusting the antenna pattern according to the traffic loads. Other embodiments are disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/159,858 filed on Oct. 15, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/996,258 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,129,003)filed on Jan. 15, 2016, which is a Continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/102,591 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,271,185) filed onDec. 11, 2013, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.61/792,184 filed on Mar. 15, 2013. The contents of each of the foregoingare hereby incorporated by reference into this application as if setforth herein in full.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The subject disclosure is related to a method and apparatus forinterference mitigation utilizing antenna pattern adjustments.

BACKGROUND

In most communication environments involving short range or long rangewireless communications, interference from unexpected wireless sourcescan impact the performance of a communication system leading to lowerthroughput, dropped calls, reduced bandwidth which can cause trafficcongestion, or other adverse effects, which are undesirable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are notnecessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication system;

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a frequency spectrum of afour carrier CDMA signal;

FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a frequency spectrum of afour carrier CDMA signal showing unequal power balancing between thefour CDMA carriers and including a narrowband interferer;

FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a base station of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a frequency spectrum of afour carrier CDMA signal having four CDMA carriers with suppression of anarrowband interferer that results in falsing;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an interference detectionand mitigation system;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative embodiment of an interference detectionand mitigation system;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative embodiment of signal processing module ofFIG. 7;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative embodiment of plots of a spread spectrumsignal;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for interferencedetection;

FIG. 11 depicts illustrative embodiments of the method of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 depicts illustrative embodiments of a series of spread spectrumsignals intermixed with an interference signal;

FIG. 13 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a graph depictinginterference detection efficiency of a system of the subject disclosure;

FIG. 14 depicts illustrative embodiments of Long Term Evolution time andfrequency signal plots;

FIG. 15 depicts illustrative embodiments of LTE time and frequencysignal plots intermixed with interference signals;

FIG. 16 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for detecting andmitigating interference signals shown in FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 depicts an illustrative embodiment of adaptive thresholds usedfor detecting and mitigating interference signals shown in FIG. 15;

FIG. 18 depicts an illustrative embodiment of resulting LTE signalsafter mitigating interference according to the method of FIG. 16;

FIG. 19A depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for mitigatinginterference;

FIG. 19B depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication systemutilizing the method of FIG. 19A;

FIG. 20A depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication systemutilizing antenna pattern adjustment for mitigation of interference;

FIG. 20B depicts another illustrative embodiment of the communicationsystem of FIG. 20A utilizing antenna pattern adjustment for mitigationof interference;

FIG. 20C depicts another illustrative embodiment of the communicationsystem utilizing antenna pattern adjustment for mitigation ofinterference;

FIG. 21 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for mitigatinginterference utilizing antenna pattern adjustment;

FIG. 22 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a communication devicethat can utilize in whole or in part embodiments of the subjectdisclosure for detecting and mitigating interference; and

FIG. 23 is a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the form of acomputer system within which a set of instructions, when executed, maycause the machine to perform any one or more of the methods describedherein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject disclosure describes, among other things, illustrativeembodiments for detecting and mitigating interference signals. Thedetection and mitigation of the interference signals can be performed byway of manipulating one or more antenna patterns based on a location ofone or more interferers. Antenna adjustments can be performed to changethe traffic loads at different antennas. Other embodiments are includedin the subject disclosure.

One or more of the embodiments can detect interference and identifylocation of end user devices. In this example, based on interference ora lack thereof, antenna pattern adjustments can be performed, such astilting or moving an antenna at a base station to reduce footprint ofend user devices that can use that particular base station or tilting ormoving the antenna in the opposite direction to increase footprint ofend user devices that can be serviced by that particular base station.In one embodiment, use panorama data can be utilized to determine how tomitigate noise and/or increase traffic load of a base station. Inanother embodiment, for an adjacent base station that is overloading ontraffic, antenna pattern adjustment (e.g., tilting or rotating ofantenna) can be utilized to force or otherwise cause traffic of anoverloaded base station to move to another base station that hasexperienced improvement in traffic due to noise mitigation. In one ormore embodiments, the antenna pattern adjustment can be performed withor without interference filtering being performed.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure is a method that includesobtaining, by a system having a processor, interference informationaccording to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signalinterference in a plurality of resource blocks in a radio frequencyspectrum of a wireless communication system providing communicationservices to a plurality of communication devices. The method can includecorrelating, by the system, the interference information to generatecorrelated information. The method can include detecting, by the system,a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information. Themethod can include determining, by the system, interferer locations foreach of the plurality of interferers. The method can include adjusting,by the system, a first antenna pattern of a first antenna of a firstbase station based on the interferer locations. The adjusting of thefirst antenna pattern can change a first coverage area of the firstantenna to an adjusted first coverage area. In one embodiment, theadjusting of the first antenna pattern can cause at least one interfererof the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjustedfirst coverage area of the first antenna. In another embodiment, theadjusting of the first antenna pattern can cause at least onecommunication device of the plurality of communication devices to changefrom utilizing the first base station to utilizing a second base stationfor the communication services.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure is a system that includes amemory to store instructions, and a processor coupled to the memory.Execution of the instructions by the processor causes the processor toperform operations including obtaining interference informationaccording to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signalinterference in a plurality of segments of a radio frequency spectrum ofa wireless communication system providing communication services. Theoperations can include generating an interference map for a plurality ofinterferers according to the interference information. The operationscan include adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at afirst location based on the interference map. The adjusting of the firstantenna pattern can change a first coverage area of the first antenna toan adjusted first coverage area. In one embodiment, the adjusting of thefirst antenna pattern can cause at least one interferer of the pluralityof interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage areaof the first antenna. In another embodiment, the adjusting of the firstantenna pattern can cause at least one communication device to changefrom utilizing the first antenna to utilizing a second antenna at asecond location for accessing the communication services.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure includes a machine-readablestorage medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations including receivinginterference information from each of a plurality of communicationdevices detecting interference information in a plurality of segments ina radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providingcommunication services. The operations can include correlating theinterference information of the plurality of communication devices togenerate correlated information. The operations can include identifyinga plurality of interferers according to the correlated information. Theoperations can include approximating a location of the plurality ofinterferers according to location information provided by the pluralityof communication devices. The operations can include adjusting a firstantenna pattern of a first antenna at a first location based on theapproximating of the location of the plurality of interferers. In oneembodiment, the adjusting of the first antenna pattern can cause atleast one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be locatedoutside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure includes a method forreceiving, by a system comprising a processor, interference informationfrom each of a plurality of communication devices detecting theinterference information according to at least one adaptive thresholdfor detecting signal interference in a plurality of resource blocks in aradio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system,correlating, by the system, the interference information of theplurality of communication devices to generate correlated information,detecting, by the system, a plurality of interferers according to thecorrelated information, identifying, by the system, a profile for eachof the plurality of interferers that describes characteristics of eachof the plurality of interferers, and determining, by the system, a firsttemporal recurrence of a first interferer of the plurality ofinterferers according to the interference information associated withthe first interferer.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure includes a machine-readablestorage medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprisingreceiving interference information from each of a plurality ofcommunication devices detecting interference information in a pluralityof segments in a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communicationsystem, correlating the interference information of the plurality ofcommunication devices to generate correlated information, identifying aplurality of interferers according to the correlated information, andapproximating a location of the plurality of interferers according toinformation provided by the plurality of communication devices.

One embodiment of the subject disclosure includes a communicationdevice, comprising a memory to store instructions, and a processorcoupled to the memory, wherein execution of the instructions by theprocessor causes the processor to perform operations comprisingreceiving interference information from each of the plurality ofcommunication devices detecting interference information in a pluralityof segments of a radio frequency spectrum; correlating the interferenceinformation of the plurality of communication devices to generatecorrelated information; identifying a plurality of interferers accordingto the correlated information; and presenting an interference map of theplurality of interferers according to location information provided bythe plurality of communication devices.

Interference signals can be generated from various sources includingbi-directional amplifiers, unintended radiation from communicationequipment (e.g., faulty transmitters of the carrier or other carriers),wireless microphones, garage door openers and similar productionequipment, cross-border cellular (reduced buffer zones), federal andmilitary installations, television transmissions, intermodulation fromother transmitters, intermodulation from own faulty components andconnectors, and so forth. One or more of the exemplary embodiments canmitigate interference from these sources through avoidance performed bythe mobile communication device and/or the base station. The embodimentsof the subject disclosure can be performed singly or in combination by amobile communication device, a stationary communication device, basestations, a wireless hub used by a satellite communication system,and/or a system or systems in communication with the base stations, thewireless hub, and/or mobile communication devices.

The embodiments of the subject disclosure can be performed singly or incombination by a mobile communication device, a stationary communicationdevice, base stations, a wireless hub used by a satellite communicationsystem, and/or a system or systems in communication with the basestations, the wireless hub, and/or mobile communication devices.

As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary telecommunication system 10 may includemobile units 12, 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D, a number of base stations, twoof which are shown in FIG. 1 at reference numerals 14 and 16, and aswitching station 18 to which each of the base stations 14, 16 may beinterfaced. The base stations 14, 16 and the switching station 18 may becollectively referred to as network infrastructure.

During operation, the mobile units 12, 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D exchangevoice, data or other information with one of the base stations 14, 16,each of which is connected to a conventional land line communicationnetwork. For example, information, such as voice information,transferred from the mobile unit 12 to one of the base stations 14, 16is coupled from the base station to the communication network to therebyconnect the mobile unit 12 with, for example, a land line telephone sothat the land line telephone may receive the voice information.Conversely, information, such as voice information may be transferredfrom a land line communication network to one of the base stations 14,16, which in turn can transfer the information to the mobile unit 12.

The mobile units 12, 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D and the base stations 14, 16may exchange information in either narrow band or wide band format. Forthe purposes of this description, it is assumed that the mobile unit 12is a narrowband unit and that the mobile units 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13Dare wideband units. Additionally, it is assumed that the base station 14is a narrowband base station that communicates with the mobile unit 12and that the base station 16 is a wideband digital base station thatcommunicates with the mobile units 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D.

Narrow band format communication takes place using, for example,narrowband 200 kilohertz (KHz) channels. The Global System for Mobilephone systems (GSM™) is one example of a narrow band communicationsystem in which the mobile unit 12 communicates with the base station 14using narrowband channels. Alternatively, the mobile units 13A, 13B,13C, and 13D communicate with the base stations 16 using a form ofdigital communications such as, for example, code-division multipleaccess (CDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), 3GPPLong Term Evolution (LTE®), or other next generation wireless accesstechnologies. CDMA digital communication, for instance, takes placeusing spread spectrum techniques that broadcast signals having widebandwidths, such as, for example, 1.2288 megahertz (MHz) bandwidths.

The switching station 18 is generally responsible for coordinating theactivities of the base stations 14, 16 to ensure that the mobile units12, 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D are constantly in communication with the basestation 14, 16 or with some other base stations that are geographicallydispersed. For example, the switching station 18 may coordinatecommunication handoffs of the mobile unit 12 between the base stations14 and another base station as the mobile unit 12 roams betweengeographical areas that are covered by the two base stations.

One particular problem that may arise in the telecommunication system 10is when the mobile unit 12 or the base station 14, each of whichcommunicates using narrowband channels, interferes with the ability ofthe base station 16 to receive and process wideband digital signals fromthe digital mobile units 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D. In such a situation,the narrowband signal transmitted from the mobile unit 12 or the basestation 14 may interfere with the ability of the base station 16 toproperly receive wideband communication signals.

As will be readily appreciated, the base station 16 may receive andprocess wideband digital signals from more than one of the digitalmobile units 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D. For example, the base station 16may be adapted to receive and process four CDMA carriers 40A-40D thatfall within a multi-carrier CDMA signal 40, as shown in FIG. 2. In sucha situation, narrowband signals transmitted from more than one mobileunits, such as, the mobile unit 12, may interfere with the ability ofthe base station 16 to properly receive wideband communication signalson any of the four CDMA carriers 40A-40D. For example, FIG. 3 shows amulti-carrier CDMA signal 42 containing four CDMA carriers 42A, 42B, 42Cand 42D adjacent to each other wherein one of the CDMA carriers 42C hasa narrowband interferer 46 therein. As shown in FIG. 3, it is quiteoften the case that the signal strengths of the CDMA carrier signals42A-42D are not equal.

As disclosed in detail hereinafter, a system and/or a method formultiple channel adaptive filtering or interference suppression may beused in a communication system. In particular, such a system or methodmay be employed in a wideband communication system to protect against,or to report the presence of, narrowband interference, which hasdeleterious effects on the performance of the wideband communicationsystem. Additionally, such a system and method may be operated toeliminate interference in CDMA carriers having other CDMA carriersadjacent thereto. In one embodiment, the system 100 can detect alocation of one or more interferers and can perform antenna patternadjustment to facilitate mitigation of interference for the devices 12and 13A-D. For example, the antenna pattern adjustment can cause thecoverage area for the base station 14 and/or 16 to be adjusted so thatthe location of the interferer is outside of the coverage area or movedmore to the boundary of the coverage area. In another embodiment, theantenna pattern adjustment can cause communication devices to shiftbetween use of base stations such that a base station experiencing ahigher amount of interference will have its traffic decreased and a basestation experiencing a lower amount of interference (e.g., due tomitigation steps taken by that particular base station) will have itstraffic increased.

As shown in FIG. 4, the signal reception path of the base station 16,which was described as receiving narrowband interference from the mobileunit 12 in conjunction with FIG. 1, includes an antenna 50 that providessignals to a low noise amplifier (LNA) 52. The output of the LNA 52 iscoupled to a splitter 54 that splits the signal from the LNA 52 into anumber of different paths, one of which may be coupled to an adaptivefront end 56 and another of which may be coupled to a narrowbandreceiver 58. The output of the adaptive front end 56 is coupled to awideband receiver 60, which may, for example, be embodied in a CDMAreceiver or any other suitable wideband receiver. The narrowbandreceiver 58 may be embodied in a 15 KHz bandwidth receiver or in anyother suitable narrowband receiver. Although only one signal path isshown in FIG. 4, it will be readily understood to those having ordinaryskill in the art that such a signal path is merely exemplary and that,in reality, a base station may include two or more such signal pathsthat may be used to process main and diversity signals received by thebase station 16.

It will be readily understood that the illustrations of FIG. 4 can alsobe used to describe the components and functions of other forms ofcommunication devices such as a small base station, a femtocell, a WIFIrouter or access point, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a laptopcomputer, a tablet, or other forms of wireless communication devicessuitable for applying the principles of the subject disclosure.Accordingly, such communication devices can include variants of thecomponents shown in FIG. 4 and perform the functions that will bedescribed below. For illustration purposes only, the descriptions belowwill address the base station 16 with an understanding that theseembodiments are exemplary and non-limiting to the subject disclosure.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the outputs of the narrowband receiver 58 andthe wideband receiver 60 can be coupled to other systems within the basestation 16. Such systems may perform voice and/or data processing, callprocessing or any other desired function. Additionally, the adaptivefront end module 56 may also be communicatively coupled, via theInternet, telephone lines, cellular network, or any other suitablecommunication systems, to a reporting and control facility that isremote from the base station 16. In some networks, the reporting andcontrol facility may be integrated with the switching station 18. Thenarrowband receiver 58 may be communicatively coupled to the switchingstation 18 and may respond to commands that the switching station 18issues.

One or more of the components 50-60 of the base station 16 shown in FIG.4, except for the adaptive front end module 56, may be found in awideband cellular base station 16, the details of which are well knownto those having ordinary skill in the art. It will also be appreciatedby those having ordinary skill in the art that FIG. 4 does not discloseevery system or subsystem of the base station 16 and, rather, focuses onthe relevant systems and subsystems to the subject disclosure. Inparticular, it will be readily appreciated that, while not shown in FIG.4, the base station 16 can include a transmission system or othersubsystems. It is further appreciated that the adaptive front end module56 can be an integral subsystem of a wideband cellular base station 16,or can be a modular subsystem that can be physically placed in differentlocations of a receiver chain of the base station 16, such as at or nearthe antenna 50, at or near the LNA 52, or at or near the widebandreceiver 60.

During operation of the base station 16, the antenna 50 receives CDMAcarrier signals that are broadcast from the mobile unit 13A, 13B, 13Cand 13D and couples such signals to the LNA 52, which amplifies thereceived signals and couples the amplified signals to the splitter 54.The splitter 54 splits the amplified signal from the LNA 52 andessentially places copies of the amplified signal on each of its outputlines. The adaptive front end module 56 receives the signal from thesplitter 54 and, if necessary, filters the CDMA carrier signal to removeany undesired narrowband interference and couples the filtered CDMAcarrier signal to the wideband receiver 60.

As noted previously, FIG. 2 illustrates an ideal frequency spectrum 40of a CDMA carrier signal that may be received at the antenna 50,amplified and split by the LNA 52 and the splitter 54 and coupled to theadaptive front end module 56. If the CDMA carrier signal received at theantenna 50 has a frequency spectrum 40 as shown in FIG. 2 without anynarrowband interference, the adaptive front end will not filter the CDMAcarrier signal and will simply couple the wideband signal directlythrough the adaptive front end module 56 to the wideband receiver 60.

However, as noted previously, it is possible that the CDMA carriersignal transmitted by the mobile units 13A-13D and received by theantenna 50 has a frequency spectrum as shown in FIG. 3 which contains amulti-carrier CDMA signal 42 that includes not only the four CDMAcarriers 42A, 42B, 42C and 42D from the mobile units 13A, 13B, 13C and13D having unequal CDMA carrier strengths, but also includes narrowbandinterferer 46, as shown in FIG. 3, which in this illustration is causedby mobile unit 12. If a multi-carrier CDMA signal having a multi-carrierCDMA signal 42 including narrowband interferer 46 is received by theantenna 50 and amplified, split and presented to the adaptive front endmodule 56, it will filter the multi-carrier CDMA signal 42 to produce afiltered frequency spectrum 43 as shown in FIG. 5.

The filtered multi-carrier CDMA signal 43 has the narrowband interferer46 removed, as shown by the notch 46A. The filtered multi-carrier CDMAsignal 43 is then coupled from the adaptive front end module 56 to thewideband receiver 60, so that the filtered multi-carrier CDMA signal 43may be demodulated. Although some of the multi-carrier CDMA signal 42was removed during filtering by the adaptive front end module 56,sufficient multi-carrier CDMA signal 43 remains to enable the widebandreceiver 60 to recover the information that was broadcast by mobileunit(s). Accordingly, in general terms, the adaptive front end module 56selectively filters multi-carrier CDMA signals to remove narrowbandinterference therefrom. Further detail regarding the adaptive front endmodule 56 and its operation is provided below in conjunction with FIGS.6-20.

FIG. 3 depicts another example embodiment of the adaptive front endmodule 56. As noted earlier, the adaptive front end module 56 can beutilized by any communication device including cellular phones,smartphones, tablets, small base stations, femto cells, WIFI accesspoints, and so on. In the illustration of FIG. 3, the adaptive front endmodule 56 can include a radio 60 comprising two stages, a receiver stage62 and a transmitter stage 64, each coupled to an antenna assembly 66,66′, which may comprise one of more antennas for the radio 60. The radio60 has a first receiver stage coupled to the antenna assembly 66 andincludes an adaptive front-end controller 68 that receives the input RFsignal from the antenna and performs adaptive signal processing on thatRF signal before providing the modified RF signal to ananalog-to-digital converter 70, which then passes the adapted RF signalto a digital RF tuner 72.

As shown in FIG. 6, the adaptive front-end controller 68 of the receiverstage 62 includes two RF signal samplers 74, 76 connected between an RFadaptive filter stage 78 that is controlled by controller 80. Theadaptive filter stage 78 may have a plurality of tunable digital filtersthat can sample an incoming signal and selectively provide bandpass orbandstop signal shaping of an incoming RF signal, whether it is anentire wideband communication signal or a narrowband signal or variouscombinations of both. A controller 80 is coupled to the samplers 74, 76and filter stage 78 and serves as an RF link adapter that along with thesampler 74 monitors the input RF signal from the antenna 66 anddetermines various RF signal characteristics such as the interferencesand noise within the RF signal. The controller 80 is configured toexecute any number of a variety of signal processing algorithms toanalyze the received RF signal, and determine a filter state for thefilter stage 78.

By providing tuning coefficient data to the filter stage 78, theadaptive front end controller 68 acts to pre-filter the received RFsignal before the signal is sent to the RF tuner 72, which analyzes thefiltered RF signal for integrity and/or for other applications such ascognitive radio applications. After filtering, the radio tuner 72 maythen perform channel demodulation, data analysis, and local broadcastingfunctions. The RF tuner 72 may be considered the receiver side of anoverall radio tuner, while RF tuner 72′ may be considered thetransmitter side of the same radio tuner. Prior to sending the filteredRF signal, the sampler 76 may provide an indication of the filtered RFsignal to the controller 80 in a feedback manner for further adjustingof the adaptive filter stage 78.

In some examples, the adaptive front-end controller 68 is synchronizedwith the RF tuner 72 by sharing a master clock signal communicatedbetween the two. For example, cognitive radios operating on a 100 μsresponse time can be synchronized such that for every clock cycle theadaptive front end analyzes the input RF signal, determines an optimalconfiguration for the adaptive filter stage 78, filters that RF signalinto the filtered RF signal and communicates the same to the radio tuner72 for cognitive analysis at the radio. By way of example, cellularphones may be implemented with a 200 μs response time on filtering. Byimplementing the adaptive front end controller 68 using a fieldprogrammable gate array configuration for the filter stage, wirelessdevices may identify not only stationary interference, but alsonon-stationary interference, of arbitrary bandwidths on that movinginterferer.

In some implementations, the adaptive front-end controller 68 may filterinterference or noise from the received incoming RF signal and pass thatfiltered RF signal to the tuner 72. In other examples, such as cascadedconfigurations in which there are multiple adaptive filter stages, theadaptive front-end controller 68 may be configured to apply the filteredsignal to an adaptive bandpass filter stage to create a passband portionof the filtered RF signal. For example, the radio tuner 72 maycommunicate information to the controller 68 to instruct the controllerthat the radio is only looking at a portion of an overall RF spectrumand thus cause the adaptive front-end controller 68 not to filtercertain portions of the RF spectrum and thereby bandpass only thoseportions. The integration between the radio tuner 72 and the adaptivefront-end controller 68 may be particularly useful in dual-band andtri-band applications in which the radio tuner 72 is able to communicateover different wireless standards, such as GSM or UMTS standards.

The algorithms that may be executed by the controller 80 are not limitedto interference detection and filtering of interference signals. In someconfigurations the controller 80 may execute a spectral blind sourceseparation algorithm that looks to isolate two sources from theirconvolved mixtures. The controller 80 may execute a signal tointerference noise ratio (SINR) output estimator for all or portions ofthe RF signal. The controller 80 may perform bidirectional transceiverdata link operations for collaborative retuning of the adaptive filterstage 78 in response to instructions from the radio tuner 72 or fromdata the transmitter stage 64. The controller 80 can determine filtertuning coefficient data for configuring the various adaptive filters ofstage 78 to properly filter the RF signal. The controller 80 may alsoinclude a data interface communicating the tuning coefficient data tothe radio tuner 72 to enable the radio tuner 72 to determine filteringcharacteristics of the adaptive filter 78.

In one embodiment the filtered RF signal may be converted from a digitalsignal to an analog signal within the adaptive front-end controller 68.This allows the controller 68 to integrate in a similar manner toconventional RF filters. In other examples, a digital interface may beused to connect the adaptive front-end controller 68 with the radiotuner 72, in which case the ADC 70 would not be necessary.

The above discussion is in the context of the receiver stage 62. Similarelements are shown in the transmitter stage 64, but bearing a prime. Theelements in the transmitter stage 64 may be similar to those of thereceiver 62, with the exception of the digital to analog converter (DAC)70′ and other adaptations to the other components shown with a prime inthe reference numbers. Furthermore, some or all of these components mayin fact be executed by the same corresponding structure in the receiverstage 62. For example, the RF receiver tuner 72 and the transmittertuner 72′ may be performed by a single tuner device. The same may betrue for the other elements, such as the adaptive filter stages 78 and78′, which may both be implemented in a single FPGA, with differentfilter elements in parallel for full duplex (simultaneous) receive andtransmit operation.

FIG. 7 illustrates another example implementation of an adaptivefront-end controller 100. Input RF signals are received at an antenna(not shown) and coupled to an initial analog filter 104, such as lownoise amplifier (LNA) block, then digitally converted via an analog todigital converter (ADC) 106, prior to the digitized input RF signalbeing coupled to a field programmable gate array (FPGA) 108. Theadaptive filter stage described above may be implemented within the FPGA108, which has been programmed to contain a plurality of adaptive filterelements tunable to different operating frequencies and frequency bands,and at least some being adaptive from a bandpass to a bandstopconfiguration or vice versa, as desired. Although an FPGA isillustrated, it will be readily understood that other architectures suchas an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a digital signalprocessor (DSP) may also be used to implement a digital filterarchitecture described in greater detail below.

A DSP 110 is coupled to the FPGA 108 and executes signal processingalgorithms that may include a spectral blind source separationalgorithm, a signal to interference noise ratio (SINR) output estimator,bidirectional transceiver data line operation for collaborative retuningof the adaptive filter stage in response to instructions from the tuner,and/or an optimal filter tuning coefficients algorithm.

FPGA 108 is also coupled to a PCI target 112 that interfaces the FPGA108 and a PCI bus 114 for communicating data externally. A system clock118 provides a clock input to the FPGA 108 and DSP 110, therebysynchronizing the components. The system clock 118 may be locally set onthe adaptive front-end controller, while in other examples the systemclaim 118 may reflect an external master clock, such as that of a radiotuner. The FPGA 108, DSP 110, and PCI target 112, designatedcollectively as signal processing module 116, will be described ingreater detail below. In the illustrated example, the adaptive front-endcontroller 100 includes a microcontroller 120 coupled to the PCI bus 114and an operations, alarms and metrics (OA&M) processor 122. Althoughthey are shown and described herein as separate devices that executeseparate software instructions, those having ordinary skill in the artwill readily appreciate that the functionality of the microcontroller120 and the OA&M processor 122 may be merged into a single processingdevice. The microcontroller 120 and the OA&M processor 122 are coupledto external memories 124 and 126, respectively. The microcontroller 120may include the ability to communicate with peripheral devices, and, assuch, the microcontroller 120 may be coupled to a USB port, an Ethernetport, or an RS232 port, among others (though none shown). In operation,the microcontroller 120 may locally store lists of channels havinginterferers or a list of known typically available frequency spectrumbands, as well as various other parameters. Such a list may betransferred to a reporting and control facility or a base station, viathe OA&M processor 122, and may be used for system diagnostic purposes.

The aforementioned diagnostic purposes may include, but are not limitedto, controlling the adaptive front-end controller 100 to obtainparticular information relating to an interferer and re-tasking theinterferer. For example, the reporting and control facility may use theadaptive front-end controller 100 to determine the identity of aninterferer, such as a mobile unit, by intercepting the electronic serialnumber (ESN) of the mobile unit, which is sent when the mobile unittransmits information on the narrowband channel. Knowing the identity ofthe interferer, the reporting and control facility may contactinfrastructure that is communicating with the mobile unit (e.g., thebase station) and may request the infrastructure to change the transmitfrequency for the mobile unit (i.e., the frequency of the narrowbandchannel on which the mobile unit is transmitting) or may request theinfrastructure to drop communications with the interfering mobile unitaltogether.

Additionally, in a cellular configuration (e.g., a system based on aconfiguration like that of FIG. 1) diagnostic purposes may include usingthe adaptive front-end controller 100 to determine a telephone numberthat the mobile unit is attempting to contact and, optionally handlingthe call. For example, the reporting and control facility may use theadaptive front-end controller 100 to determine that the user of themobile unit was dialing 911, or any other emergency number, and may,therefore, decide that the adaptive front-end controller 100 should beused to handle the emergency call by routing the output of the adaptivefront-end controller 100 to a telephone network.

The FPGA 108 can provide a digital output coupled to a digital to analogconverter (DAC) 128 that converts the digital signal to an analog signalwhich may be provided to a filter 130 to generate a filtered RF outputto be broadcast from the base station or mobile station. The digitaloutput at the FPGA 108, as described, may be one of many possibleoutputs. For example, the FPGA 108 may be configured to output signalsbased on a predefined protocol such as a Gigabit Ethernet output, anopen base station architecture initiative (OBSAI) protocol, or a commonpublic radio interface (CPRI) protocol, among others.

It is further noted that the aforementioned diagnostic purposes may alsoinclude creating a database of known interferers, the time of occurrenceof the interferers, the frequency of occurrence of the interferers,spectral information relating to the interferers, a severity analysis ofthe interferers, and so on. The identity of the interferers may be basedsolely on spectral profiles of each interferer that can be used foridentification purposes. Although the aforementioned illustrationsdescribe a mobile unit 12 as an interferer, other sources ofinterference are possible. Any electronic appliance that generateselectromagnetic waves such as, for example, a computer, a set-top box, achild monitor, a wireless access point (e.g., WIFI, ZIGBEE®, BLUETOOTH®,etc.) can be a source of interference (BLUETOOTH® and ZIGBEE® aretrademarks registered by the BLUETOOTH Special Interest Group and theZIGBEE Alliance, respectively). In one embodiment, a database ofelectronic appliances can be analyzed in a laboratory setting or othersuitable testing environment to determine an interference profile foreach appliance. The interference profiles can be stored in a databaseaccording to an appliance type, manufacturer, model number, and otherparameters that may be useful in identifying an interferer. Spectralprofiles provided by, for example, the OA&M processor 108 to adiagnostic system can be compared to a database of previouslycharacterized interferers to determine the identity of the interferencewhen a match is detected.

It is further noted that the aforementioned diagnostic purposes may alsoinclude creating a database of known interferers, the time of occurrenceof the interferers, the frequency of occurrence of the interferers,spectral information relating to the interferers, a severity analysis ofthe interferers, and so on. The identity of the interferers may be basedsolely on spectral profiles of each interferer that can be used foridentification purposes. Although the aforementioned illustrationsdescribe a mobile unit 12 as an interferer, other sources ofinterference are possible. Any electronic appliance that generateselectromagnetic waves such as, for example, a computer, a set-top box, achild monitor, a wireless access point (using, for example, acommunications standard such as WIFI™, ZIGBEE®, BLUETOOTH®, etc.) can bea source of interference (BLUETOOTH® and ZIGBEE® are trademarksregistered by the BLUETOOTH Special Interest Group and the ZIGBEEAlliance, respectively). In one embodiment, a database of electronicappliances can be analyzed in a laboratory setting or other suitabletesting environment to determine an interference profile for eachappliance. The interference profiles can be stored in a databaseaccording to an appliance type, manufacturer, model number, and otherparameters that may be useful in identifying an interferer. Spectralprofiles provided by, for example, the OA&M processor 108 to adiagnostic system can be compared to a database of previouslycharacterized interferers to determine the identity of the interferencewhen a match is detected.

FIG. 8 illustrates further details of an example implementation of asignal processing module 116 that may serve as another embodiment of anadaptive front end controller, it being understood that otherarchitectures may be used to implement a signal detection algorithm. Adecoder 150 receives an input from the ADC 106 and decodes the incomingdata into a format suitable to be processed by the signal processingmodule 116. A digital down converter 152, such as a polyphase decimator,down converts the decoded signal from the decoder 150. The decodedsignal is separated during the digital down conversion stage into acomplex representation of the input signal, that is, into In-Phase (I)and Quadrature-Phase (Q) components which are then fed into a tunableinfinite impulse response (IIR)/finite impulse response (FIR) filter154. The IIR/FIR filter 154 may be implemented as multiple cascaded orparallel IIR and FIR filters. For example, the IIR/FIR filter 154 may beused with multiple filters in series, such as initial adaptive bandpassfilter followed by adaptive bandstop filter. For example, the bandpassfilters may be implemented as FIR filters, while the bandstop filtersmay be implemented as IIR filters. In an embodiment, fifteen cascadedtunable IIR/FIR filters are used to optimize the bit width of eachfilter. Of course other digital down converters and filters such ascascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filters may be used, to name a few. Byusing complex filtering techniques, such as the technique describedherein, the sampling rate is lowered thereby increasing (e.g., doubling)the bandwidth that the filter 154 can handle. In addition, using complexarithmetic also provides the signal processing module 116 the ability toperform higher orders of filtering with greater accuracy.

The I and Q components from the digital down converter 152 are providedto the DSP 110 which implements a detection algorithm and in responseprovides the tunable IIR/FIR filter 154 with tuning coefficient datathat tunes the IIR and/or FIR filters 154 to specific notch (orbandstop) and/or bandpass frequencies, respectively, and specificbandwidths. The tuning coefficient data, for example, may include afrequency and a bandwidth coefficient pair for each of the adaptivefilters, which enables the filter to tune to a frequency for bandpass orbandstop operation and the bandwidth to be applied for that operation.The tuning coefficient data corresponding to a bandpass center frequencyand bandwidth may be generated by the detection algorithm and passed toa tunable FIR filter within the IIR/FIR filter 154. The filter 154 maythen pass all signals located within a passband of the giventransmission frequency. Tuning coefficient data corresponding to a notch(or bandstop) filter may be generated by the detection algorithm andthen applied to an IIR filter within the IIR/FIR filter 154 to removeany narrowband interference located within the passband of the bandpassfilter. The tuning coefficient data generated by the detection algorithmare implemented by the tunable IIR/FIR filters 154 using mathematicaltechniques known in the art. In the case of a cognitive radio, uponimplementation of the detection algorithm, the DSP 110 may determine andreturn coefficients corresponding to a specific frequency and bandwidthto be implemented by the tunable IIR/FIR filter 154 through a DSP/PCIinterface 158. Similarly, the transfer function of a notch (or bandstop)filter may also be implemented by the tunable IIR/FIR filter 154. Ofcourse other mathematical equations may be used to tune the IIR/FIRfilters 154 to specific notch, bandstop, or bandpass frequencies and toa specific bandwidth.

After the I and Q components are filtered to the appropriate notch (orbandstop) or bandpass frequency at a given bandwidth, a digitalupconverter 156, such as a polyphase interpolator, converts the signalback to the original data rate, and the output of the digitalupconverter is provided to the DAC 128.

A wireless communication device capable to be operated as a dual- ortri-band device communicating over multiple standards, such as over GSMand UMTS may use the adaptive digital filter architecture embodiments asdescribed above. For example, a dual-band device (using both UMTS andGSM) may be preprogrammed within the DSP 110 to transmit first on UMTS,if available, and on GSM only when outside of a UMTS network. In such acase, the IIR/FIR filter 154 may receive tuning coefficient data fromthe DSP 110 to pass all signals within a UMTS range. That is, the tuningcoefficient data may correspond to a bandpass center frequency andbandwidth adapted to pass only signals within the UMTS range. Thesignals corresponding to a GSM signal may be filtered, and anyinterference caused by the GSM signal may be filtered using tuningcoefficients, received from the DSP 110, corresponding to a notch (orbandstop) frequency and bandwidth associated with the GSM interferencesignal.

Alternatively, in some cases it may be desirable to keep the GSM signalin case the UMTS signal fades quickly and the wireless communicationdevice may need to switch communication standards rapidly. In such acase, the GSM signal may be separated from the UMTS signal, and bothpassed by the adaptive front-end controller. Using the adaptive digitalfilter, two outputs may be realized, one output corresponding to theUMTS signal and one output corresponding to a GSM signal. The DSP 110may be programmed to again recognize the multiple standard service andmay generate tuning coefficients corresponding to realize a filter, suchas a notch (or bandstop) filter, to separate the UMTS signal from theGSM signal. In such examples, an FPGA may be programmed to have paralleladaptive filter stages, one for each communication band.

To implement the adaptive filter stages, in some examples, the signalprocessing module 116 is pre-programmed with general filter architecturecode at the time of production, for example, with parameters definingvarious filter types and operation. The adaptive filter stages may thenbe programmed, through a user interface or other means, by the serviceproviders, device manufactures, etc., to form the actual filterarchitecture (parallel filter stages, cascaded filter stages, etc.) forthe particular device and for the particular network(s) under which thedevice is to be used. Dynamic flexibility can be achieved duringruntime, where the filters may be programmed to different frequenciesand bandwidths, each cycle, as discussed herein.

One method of detecting a wideband signal having narrowband interferenceis by exploiting the noise like characteristics of a signal. Due to suchnoise like characteristics of the signal, a particular measurement of anarrowband channel power gives no predictive power as to what the nextmeasurement of the same measurement channel may be. In other words,consecutive observations of power in a given narrowband channel areun-correlated. As a result, if a given measurement of power in anarrowband channel provides predictive power over subsequentmeasurements of power in that particular channel, thus indicating adeparture from statistics expected of a narrowband channel withoutinterference, such a narrowband channel may be determined to containinterference.

FIG. 9 illustrates an IS-95 CDMA signal 202, which is a generic DirectSequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) signal. The CDMA signal 202 may have abandwidth of 1.2288 MHz and it may be used to carry up to 41 narrowbandchannels, each of which has a bandwidth of 30 kHz. One way to identifyinterference affecting the CDMA signal 202 may be to identify any ofsuch 41 narrowband channels having excess power above an expected powerof the CDMA signal 202. FIG. 9 also illustrates the probabilitydistribution functions (PDFs) 204 of a typical DSSS signal and acomplementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDFs) 206 of a typicalDSSS signal, which may be used to establish a criteria used to determinenarrowband channels disposed within a wideband signal and having excesspower.

Specifically, the PDFs 204 include probability distribution of power ina given channel, which is the likelihood p(x) of measuring a power x ina given channel, for a DSSS signal carrying one mobile unit (212), for aDSSS signal carrying ten mobile units (214), and for a DSSS signalcarrying twenty mobile units (210). For example, for the PDF 212,representing a DSSS signal carrying one mobile unit, the distributionp(x) is observed to be asymmetric, with an abbreviated high power tail.

In this case, any channel having power higher than the high power tailof the PDF 212 may be considered to have an interference signal.

The CCDFs 206 denote the likelihood that a power measurement in achannel will exceed a given mean power α, by some value α/σ, wherein σis standard deviation of the power distribution. Specifically, the CCDFs206 include an instance of CCDF for a DSSS signal carrying one mobileunit (220), an instance of CCDF for a DSSS signal carrying ten mobileunits (222), and an instance of CCDF for a DSSS signal carrying twentymobile units (224). Thus, for example, for a DSSS signal carrying onemobile unit, the likelihood of any narrowband channel having the ratioα/σ of 10 dB or more is 0.01%. Therefore, an optimal filter can be tunedto such a narrowband channel having excess power.

One method of detecting such a narrowband channel having interference isby exploiting the noise like characteristic of a DSSS signal. Due tosuch noise like characteristic of DSSS signal, a particular measurementof a narrowband channel power gives no predictive power as to what thenext measurement of the same measurement channel may be. In other words,consecutive observations of power in a given narrowband channels areun-correlated. As a result, if a given measurement of power in anarrowband channel provides predictive power over subsequentmeasurements of power in that particular channel, thus indicating adeparture from statistics expected of a narrowband channel withoutinterference, such a narrowband channel may be determined to containinterference.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an interference detection program 300that may be used to determine location of interference in a DSSS signal.At block 302 a series of DSSS signals can be scanned by the adaptivefront end controller described above and the observed values of thesignal strengths can be stored for each of various narrowband channelslocated in the DSSS signal. For example, at block 302 the adaptive frontend controller may continuously scan the 1.2288 MHz DSSS signal 60 foreach of the 41 narrowband channels dispersed within it. The adaptivefront end controller may be implemented by any analog scanner or digitalsignal processor (DSP) used to scan and store signal strengths in a DSSSsignal. The scanned values of narrowband signal strengths may be storedin a memory of such DSP or in any other computer readable memory. Theadaptive front end controller may store the signal strength of aparticular narrowband channel along with any information, such as anumeric identifier, identifying the location of that particularnarrowband channel within the DSSS signal.

At block 304 the adaptive front end controller can determine the numberof sequences m of a DSSS signal that may be required to be analyzed todetermine narrowband channels having interference. A user may providesuch a number m based on any pre-determined criteria. For example, auser may provide m to be equal to four, meaning that four consecutiveDSSS signals need to be analyzed to determine if any of the narrowbandchannels within that DSSS signal spectrum includes an interferencesignal. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, the higheris the selected value of m, the more accurate will be the interferencedetection. However, the higher the number m is, the higher is the delayin determining whether a particular DSSS signal had an interferencepresent in it, subsequently, resulting in a longer delay before a filteris applied to the DSSS signal to remove the interference signal.

Generally, detection of an interference signal may be performed on arolling basis. That is, at any point in time, m previous DSSS signalsmay be used to analyze presence of an interference signal. The earliestof such m interference signals may be removed from the set of DSSSsignals used to determine the presence of an interference signal on afirst-in-first-out basis. However, in an alternate embodiment, analternate sampling method for the set of DSSS signals may also be used.

At block 306 the adaptive front end controller can select x narrowbandchannels having the highest signal strength from each of the m mostrecent DSSS signals scanned at the block 302. The number x may bedetermined by a user. For example, if x is selected to be equal tothree, the block 306 may select three highest channels from each of them most recent DSSS signals. The methodology for selecting x narrowbandchannels having highest signal strength from a DSSS signal is describedin further detail in FIG. 11 below. For example, the adaptive front endcontroller at block 306 may determine that the first of the m DSSSsignals has narrowband channels 10, 15 and 27 having the highest signalstrengths, the second of the m DSSS channels has narrowband channels 15and 27 and 35 having the highest signal strengths, and the third of them DSSS channels has the narrowband channels 15, 27 and 35 having thehighest narrowband signal strength.

After having determined the x narrowband channels having the highestsignal strengths in each of the m DSSS signals, at block 308 theadaptive front end controller can compare these x narrowband channels todetermine if any of these highest strength narrowband channels appearmore than once in the m DSSS signals. In case of the example above, theadaptive front end controller at block 308 may determine that thenarrowband channels 15 and 27 are present among the highest strengthnarrowband channels for each of the last three DSSS signals, whilechannel 35 is present among the highest strength narrowband channels forat least two of the last three DSSS signals.

Such consistent appearance of narrowband channels having highest signalstrength over subsequent DSSS signals indicate that narrowband channels15 and 27, and probably the narrowband channel 35, may have aninterference signal super-imposed on them. At block 310 the adaptivefront end controller may use such information to determine whichnarrowband channels may have interference. For example, based on thenumber of times a given narrowband channel appears in the selectedhighest signal strength channels, the adaptive front end controller atblock 310 may determine the confidence level that may be assigned to aconclusion that a given narrowband channel contains an interferencesignal.

Alternatively, at block 310 the adaptive front end controller maydetermine a correlation factor for each of the various narrowbandchannels appearing in the x selected highest signal strength channelsand compare the calculated correlation factors with a thresholdcorrelation factor to determine whether any of the x selected channelshas correlated signal strengths. Calculating a correlation factor basedon a series of observations is well known to those of ordinary skill inthe art and therefore is not illustrated in further detail herein. Thethreshold correlation factor may be given by the user of theinterference detection program 300.

Note that while in the above illustrated embodiment, the correlationfactors of only the selected highest signal strength channels arecalculated, in an alternate embodiment, correlation factors of all thenarrowband channels within the DSSS signals may be calculated andcompared to the threshold correlation factor.

Empirically, it may be shown that when m is selected to be equal tothree, for a clean DSSS signal, the likelihood of having at least onematch among the higher signal strength narrowband channels is 0.198, thelikelihood of having at least two matches among the higher signalstrength narrowband channels is 0.0106, and the likelihood of having atleast three matches among the higher signal strength narrowband channelsis 9.38×10⁻⁵. Thus, the higher the number of matches, the lesser is thelikelihood of having a determination that one of the x channels containsan interference signal (i.e., a false positive interference detection).It may be shown that if the number of scans m is increased to, say fourDSSS scans, the likelihood of having such matches in m consecutive scansis even smaller, thus providing higher confidence that if such matchesare found to be present, they indicate presence of interference signalin those narrowband channels.

To identify the presence of interference signals with even higher levelof confidence, at block 312 the adaptive front end controller may decidewhether to compare the signal strengths of the narrowband channelsdetermined to have an interference signal with a threshold. If at block312 the adaptive front end controller decides to perform such acomparison, at block 314 the adaptive front end controller may comparethe signal strength of each of the narrowband channels determined tohave an interference with a threshold level. Such comparing of thenarrowband channel signal strengths with a threshold may provide addedconfidence regarding the narrowband channel having an interferencesignal so that when a filter is configured according to the narrowbandchannel, the probability of removing a non-interfering signal isreduced. However, a user may determine that such added confidence levelis not necessary and thus no such comparison to a threshold needs to beperformed. In which case, at block 316 the adaptive front end controllerstores the interference signals in a memory.

After storing the information about the narrowband channels havinginterference signals, at block 318 the adaptive front end controllerselects the next DSSS signal from the signals scanned and stored atblock 302. At block 318 the adaptive front end controller may cause thefirst of the m DSSS signals to be dropped and the newly added DSSSsignal is added to the set of m DSSS signals that will be used todetermine presence of an interference signal (first-in-first-out).Subsequently, at block 306 the process of determining narrowbandchannels having interference signals is repeated by the adaptive frontend controller. Finally, at block 320 the adaptive front end controllermay select and activate one or more filters that are located in the pathof the DSSS signal to filter out any narrowband channel identified ashaving narrowband interference in it.

Now referring to FIG. 11, a flowchart illustrates a high strengthchannels detection program 350 that may be used to identify variouschannels within a given scan of the DSSS signal that may contain aninterference signal. The high strength channels detection program 350may be used to implement the functions performed at block 306 of theinterference detection program 300. In a manner similar to theinterference detection program 300, the high strength channels detectionprogram 350 may also be implemented using software, hardware, firmwareor any combination thereof.

At block 352 the adaptive front end controller may sort signal strengthsof each of the n channels within a given DSSS signal. For example, if aDSSS signal has 41 narrowband channels, at block 352 the adaptive frontend controller may sort each of the 41 narrowband channels according toits signal strengths. Subsequently, at block 354 the adaptive front endcontroller may select the x highest strength channels from the sortednarrowband channels and store information identifying the selected xhighest strength channels for further processing. An embodiment of thehigh strength channels detection program 350 may simply use the selectedx highest strength channels from each scan of the DSSS signals todetermine any presence of interference in the DSSS signals. However, inan alternate embodiment, additional selected criteria may be used.

Subsequently, at block 356 the adaptive front end controller candetermine if it is necessary to compare the signal strengths of the xhighest strength narrowband channels to any other signal strength value,such as a threshold signal strength, etc., where such a threshold may bedetermined using the average signal strength across the DSSS signal. Forexample, at block 356 the adaptive front end controller may use acriterion such as, for example: “when x is selected to be four, if atleast three out of four of the selected narrowband channels have alsoappeared in previous DSSS signals, no further comparison in necessary.”Another criterion may be, for example: “if any of the selectednarrowband channels is located at the fringe of the DSSS signal, thesignal strengths of such narrowband channels should be compared to athreshold signal strength.” Other alternate criteria may also beprovided.

If at block 356 the adaptive front end controller determines that nofurther comparison of the signal strengths of the selected x narrowbandchannels is necessary, at block 358 the adaptive front end controllerstores information about the selected x narrowband channels in a memoryfor further processing. If at block 356 the adaptive front endcontroller determines that it is necessary to apply further selectioncriteria to the selected x narrowband channels, the adaptive front endcontroller returns to block 360. At block 360 the adaptive front endcontroller may determine a threshold value against which the signalstrengths of each of the x narrowband channels are compared based on apredetermined methodology.

For example, in an embodiment, at block 360 the adaptive front endcontroller may determine the threshold based on the average signalstrength of the DSSS signal. The threshold signal strength may be theaverage signal strength of the DSSS signal or a predetermined value maybe added to such average DSSS signal to derive the threshold signalstrength.

Subsequently, at block 362 the adaptive front end controller may comparethe signal strengths of the selected x narrowband channels to thethreshold value determined at block 360. Only the narrowband channelshaving signal strengths higher than the selected threshold are used indetermining presence of interference in the DSSS signal. Finally, atblock 364 the adaptive front end controller may store information aboutthe selected x narrowband channels having signal strengths higher thanthe selected threshold in a memory. As discussed above, the interferencedetection program 300 may use such information about the selectednarrowband channels to determine the presence of interference signal inthe DSSS signal.

The interference detection program 300 and the high strength channeldetection program 350 may be implemented by using software, hardware,firmware or any combination thereof. For example, such programs may bestored on a memory of a computer that is used to control activation anddeactivation of one or more notch filters. Alternatively, such programsmay be implemented using a digital signal processor (DSP) whichdetermines the presence and location of interference channels in adynamic fashion and activates/de-activates one or more filters.

FIG. 12 illustrates a three dimensional graph 370 depicting several DSSSsignals 372-374 over a time period. A first axis of the graph 370illustrates the number of narrowband channels of the DSSS signals372-374, a second axis illustrates time over which a number of DSSSsignals 372-374 are scanned, and a third axis illustrates the power ofeach of the narrowband channels. The DSSS signals 372-374 are shown tobe affected by an interference signal 378.

The interference detection program 370 may start scanning various DSSSsignals 372-374 starting from the first DSSS signal 372. As discussedabove at block 304 the adaptive front end controller determines thenumber m of the DSSS signals 372-374 that are to be scanned. Because theinterference signal 378 causes the signal strength of a particularnarrowband channel to be consistently higher than the other channels fora number of consecutive scans of the DSSS signals 372-374 at block 210the adaptive front end controller identifies a particular channel havingan interference signal present. Subsequently, at block 320 the adaptivefront end controller will select and activate a filter that applies thefilter function as described above, to the narrowband channel havinginterference.

The graph 370 also illustrates the average signal strengths of each ofthe DSSS signals 372-374 by a line 376. As discussed above, at block 362the adaptive front end controller may compare the signal strengths ofeach of the x selected narrowband channels from the DSSS signals 372-374with the average signal strength, as denoted by line 376, in thatparticular DSSS signal.

Now referring to FIG. 13, a graph 380 illustrates interference detectionsuccess rate of using the interference detection program 370, as afunction of strength of an interference signal affecting a DSSS signal.The x-axis of the graph 380 depicts the strength of interference signalrelative to the strength of the DSSS signal, while the y-axis depictsthe detection success rate in percentages. As illustrated, when aninterference signal has a strength of at least 2 dB higher than thestrength of the DSSS signal, such an interference signal is detectedwith at least ninety five percent success rate.

The foregoing interference detection and mitigation embodiments canfurther be adapted for detecting and mitigating interference inlong-term evolution (LTE) communication systems.

LTE transmission consists of a combination of Resource Blocks (RB's)which have variable characteristics in frequency and time. A single RBcan be assigned to a user equipment, specifically, a 180 KHz continuousspectrum utilized for 0.5-1 msec. An LTE band can be partitioned into anumber of RBs which could be allocated to individual communicationdevices for specified periods of time for LTE transmission.Consequently, an LTE spectrum has an RF environment dynamically variablein frequency utilization over time. FIG. 14 depicts an illustrative LTEtransmission.

LTE utilizes different media access methods for downlink (orthogonalfrequency-division multiple access; generally, referred to as OFDMA) anduplink (single carrier frequency-division multiple access; generally,referred to as SC-FDMA). For downlink communications, each RB contains12 sub-carriers with 15 KHz spacing. Each sub-carrier can be used totransmit individual bit information according to the OFDMA protocol. Foruplink communications, LTE utilizes a similar RB structure with 12sub-carriers, but in contrast to downlink, uplink data is pre-coded forspreading across 12 sub-carriers and is transmitted concurrently on all12 sub-carriers.

The effect of data spreading across multiple sub-carriers yields atransmission with spectral characteristics similar to a CDMA/UMTSsignal. Hence, similar principles of narrow band interference detectioncan be applied within an instance of SC-FDMA transmission from anindividual communication device—described herein as user equipment (UE).However, since each transmission consists of unknown RB allocations withunknown durations, such a detection principle can only be appliedseparately for each individual RB within a frequency and specific timedomain. If a particular RB is not used for LTE transmission at the timeof detection, the RF spectrum will present a thermal noise which adheresto the characteristics of a spread spectrum signal, similar to aCDMA/UMTS signal.

Co-channel, as well as other forms of interference, can causeperformance degradation to SC-FDMA and OFDMA signals when present. FIG.15 depicts an illustration of an LTE transmission affected byinterferers 402, 404, 406 and 408 occurring at different points in time.Since such LTE transmissions do not typically have flat power spectraldensities (see FIG. 14), identification of interference as shown in FIG.15 can be a difficult technical problem. The subject disclosure,presents a method to improve the detection of narrowband interference inSC-FDMA/OFDM channels through a time-averaging algorithm that isolatesinterference components in the channel and ignores the underlyingsignal.

Time averaging system (TAS) can be achieved with a boxcar (rolling)average, in which the TAS is obtained as a linear average of a Q ofprevious spectrum samples, with Q being a user-settable parameter. The Qvalue determines the “strength” of the averaging, with higher Q valueresulting in a TAS that is more strongly smoothed in time and lessdependent on short duration transient signals. Due to thefrequency-hopped characteristic of SC-FDMA/OFDMA signals, which arecomposed of short duration transients, the TAS of such signals isapproximately flat. It will be appreciated that TAS can also beaccomplished by other methods such as a forgetting factor filter.

In one embodiment, an adaptive threshold can be determined by a method500 as depicted in FIG. 16. Q defines how many cycles of t_(i) to use(e.g., 100 cycles can be represented by t₁ thru t₁₀₀). The adaptivefront-end module 56 of FIG. 6 can be configured to measure power in 30KHz increments starting from a particular RB and over multiple timecycles. For illustration purposes, the adaptive front end module 56 isassumed to measure power across a 5 MHz spectrum. It will be appreciatedthat the adaptive front-end module 56 can be configured for otherincrements (e.g., 15 KHz or 60 KHz), and a different RF spectrumbandwidth. With this in mind, the adaptive front end module 56 can beconfigured at frequency increment f1 to measure power at t1, t2, thru tq(q representing the number of time cycles, i.e., Q). At f1+30 kHz, theadaptive front-end module 56 measures power at t1, t2, thru tn. Thefrequency increment can be defined by f0+(z−1)*30 KHz=fz, where f0 is astarting frequency, where z=1 . . . x, and z defines increments of 30KHz increment, e.g., f1=f(z=1) first 30 KHz increment, f2=f(z=2) second30 KHz increment, etc.

The adaptive front end module 56 repeats these steps until the spectrumof interest has been fully scanned for Q cycles, thereby producing thefollowing power level sample sets:

S_(f 1  (t 1  thru  tq)):  S_(1, t 1, f 1), S_(2, t 2, f 1), …  , S_(q, tq, f 1)S_(f 2  (t 1  thru  tq)):  S_(1, t 1, f 2), …  , S_(q, tq, f 2)…S_(fx  (t 1  thru  tq)):  S_(1, t 1, fz), S_(2, t 2, fx), …  , S_(q, tq, fx)

The adaptive front end module 56 in step 504, calculates averages foreach of the power level sample sets as provided below:

a 1(f 1) = (s_(1, t 1, f 1) + s_(2, t 2, f 1), …  , +s_(q, tq, f 1))/qa 2(f 2) = (s_(1, t 1, f 2) + s_(2, t 2, f 2), …  , s_(q, tq, f 2))/q…ax(fx) = (s_(1, t 1, fx) + s_(2, t 2, fx), …  , s_(2, tq, fx))/q

In one embodiment, the adaptive front end module 56 can be configured todetermine at step 506 the top “m” averages (e.g., the top 3 averages)and dismiss these averages from the calculations. The variable “m” canbe user-supplied or can be empirically determined from fieldmeasurements collected by one or more base stations utilizing anadaptive front end module 56. This step can be used to avoid skewing abaseline average across all frequency increments from being too high,resulting in a threshold calculation that may be too conservative. Ifstep 506 is invoked, a baseline average can be determined in step 508according to the equation: Baseline Avg=(a1+a2+ . . . +az−averages thathave been dismissed)/(x−m). If step 506 is skipped, the baseline averagecan be determined from the equation: Baseline Avg=(a1+a2+ . . . +az)/x.Once the baseline average is determined in step 508, the adaptive frontend module 56 can proceed to step 510 where it calculates a thresholdaccording to the equation: Threshold=y dB offset+Baseline Avg. The y dBoffset can be user defined or empirically determined from fieldmeasurements collected by one or more base stations utilizing anadaptive front end module 56.

Once a cycle of steps 502 through 510 have been completed, the adaptivefront end module 56 can monitor at step 512 interference per frequencyincrement of the spectrum being scanned based on any power levelsmeasured above the threshold 602 calculated in step 510 as shown in FIG.17. Not all interferers illustrated in FIG. 17 exceed the threshold,such as the interferer with reference 610. Although this interferer hasa high power signature, it was not detected because it occurred during aresource block (R4) that was not in use. As such, the interferer 510fell below the threshold 602. In another illustration, interferer 612also fell below the threshold 602. This interferer was missed because ofits low power signature even though the RB from which it occurred (R3)was active.

Method 500 can utilize any of the embodiments in the illustratedflowcharts described above to further enhance the interferencedetermination process. For example, method 500 of FIG. 16 can be adaptedto apply weights to the power levels, and/or perform correlationanalysis to achieve a desired confidence level that the properinterferers are addressed. For example, with correlation analysis, theadaptive front end module 56 can be configured to ignore interferers 614and 616 of FIG. 17 because their frequency of occurrence is low. Method500 can also be adapted to prioritize interference mitigation.Prioritization can be based on frequency of occurrence of theinterferers, time of day of the interference, the affect theinterference has on network traffic, and/or other suitable factors forprioritizing interference to reduce its impact on the network.Prioritization schemes can be especially useful when the filteringresources of the adaptive front end module 56 can only support a limitednumber of filtering events.

When one or more interferers are detected in step 512, the adaptivefront end module 56 can mitigate the interference at step 514 byconfiguring one or more filters to suppress the one or more interferersas described above. When there are limited resources to suppress allinterferers, the adaptive front end module 56 can use a prioritizationscheme to address the most harmful interference as discussed above. FIG.18 provides an illustration of how the adaptive front end module 56 cansuppress interferers based on the aforementioned algorithms of thesubject disclosure. For example, interferers 612, 614 and 616 can beignored by the adaptive front end module 56 because their correlationmay be low, while interference suppression is applied for all otherinterferers as shown by reference 650.

In one embodiment, the adaptive front end module 56 can submit a reportto a diagnostic system that includes information relating to theinterferers detected. The report can including among other things, afrequency of occurrence of the interferer, spectral data relating to theinterferer, an identification of the base station from which theinterferer was detected, a severity analysis of the interferer (e.g.,bit error rate, packet loss rate, or other traffic information detectedduring the interferer), and so on. The diagnostic system can communicatewith other base stations with other operable adaptive front end module56 to perform macro analysis of interferers such as triangulation tolocate interferers, identity analysis of interferers based on acomparison of spectral data and spectral profiles of known interferers,and so on.

In one embodiment, the reports provided by the adaptive front end module56 can be used by the diagnostic system to in some instance performavoidance mitigation. For example, if the interferer is known to be acommunication device in the network, the diagnostic system can direct abase station in communication with the communication device to directthe communication device to another channel so as to remove theinterference experienced by a neighboring base station. Alternatively,the diagnostic system can direct an affected base station to utilizebeam steering and or mechanical steering of antennas to avoid aninterferer. When avoidance is performed, the mitigation step 514 can beskipped or may be invoked less as a result of the avoidance steps takenby the diagnostic system.

Once mitigation and/or an interference report has been processed insteps 514 and 516, respectively, the adaptive front end module 56 canproceed to step 518. In this step, the adaptive front end module 56 canrepeat steps 502 thru 510 to calculate a new baseline average andcorresponding threshold based on Q cycles of the resource blocks. Eachcycle creates a new adaptive threshold that is used for interferencedetection. It should be noted that when Q is high, changes to thebaseline average are smaller, and consequently the adaptive thresholdvaries less over Q cycles. In contrast, when Q is low, changes to thebaseline average are higher, which results in a more rapidly changingadaptive threshold.

Generally speaking, one can expect that there will be more noise-freeresource blocks than resource blocks with substantive noise.Accordingly, if an interferer is present (constant or ad hoc), one canexpect the aforementioned algorithm described by method 500 will producean adaptive threshold (i.e., baseline average+offset) that will be lowerthan interferer's power level due to mostly noise-free resource blocksdriving down baseline average. Although certain communication deviceswill have a high initial power level when initiating communications witha base station, it can be further assumed that over time the powerlevels will be lowered to a nominal operating condition. A reasonablyhigh Q would likely also dampen disparities between RB's based on theabove described embodiments.

It is further noted that the aforementioned algorithms can be modifiedwhile maintaining an objective of mitigating detected interference. Forinstance, instead of calculating a baseline average from a combinationof averages a1(f1) through ax(fx) or subsets thereof, the adaptive frontend controller 56 can be configured to calculate a base line average foreach resource block according to a known average of adjacent resourceblocks, an average calculated for the resource block itself, or otherinformation that may be provided by, for example, to a resource blockscheduler (e.g., a software application and/or hardware component of thebase station) that may be helpful in calculating a desired baselineaverage for each resource block or groups of resource blocks. Forinstance, the resource block schedule can inform the adaptive front endmodule 56 as to which resource blocks are active and at what timeperiods. This information can be used by the adaptive front end module56 determine individualized baseline averages for each of the resourceblocks or groups thereof. Since baseline averages can be individualized,each resource block can also have its own threshold applied to thebaseline average of the resource block. Accordingly, thresholds can varybetween resource blocks for detecting interferers.

It is further noted that the aforementioned mitigation and detectionalgorithms can be implemented by any communication device includingcellular phones, smartphones, tablets, small base stations, macro basestations, femto cells, WIFI access points, and so on. Small basestations (commonly referred to as small cells) can represent low-poweredradio access nodes that can operate in licensed and/or unlicensedspectrum that have a range of 10 meters to 1 or 2 kilometers, comparedto a macrocell (or macro base station) which might have a range of a fewtens of kilometers. Small base stations can be used for mobile dataoffloading as a more efficient use of radio spectrum.

FIG. 19A depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method 700 formitigating interference such as shown in FIG. 15. Method 700 can beperformed singly or in combination by a mobile communication device, astationary communication device, base stations, and/or a system orsystems in communication with the base stations and/or mobilecommunication devices. FIG. 19B depicts an illustrative embodiment of acommunication system operating according to method 700. In thisillustration, a central system 750 can collect interference informationfrom adaptive filter modules 56 across a network of base stationsinterconnected by a data transport system.

With this in mind, method 700 can begin with step 702, where a number ofbase stations utilizing one or more adaptive filter modules 56 detectinterference in segments of spectrum, such as for example resourceblocks, and send interference information to the central system 750 forprocessing at step 704. At step 706, the central system 750 cancorrelate the interference information and determine from the correlateddata the existence of interferers at step 708. Recurring interferers canbe detected from the correlated data by utilizing a correlationalgorithm such as regression analysis. In addition to correlationanalysis, the central system 750 can generate a profile for eachinterferer at step 710. The profile can describe unique characteristicsof the interferer such as its spectral shape, its amplitude, its phase,its time of occurrence, its frequency of occurrence, a geographiclocation of the base stations and/or the adaptive filter modules 56detecting the interferer, network traffic levels at a time of detectionof the interferer, identities of the base stations performing thedetection, and so on.

At step 708, the central system 750 can compare the profiles generatedfor each interferer with profiles of known interferers. The profiles ofknown interferers can be stored in a database created by a serviceprovider that tracks the identity of interferers. The database can becreated from interferers characterized in a lab setting, and/or can bedeveloped from data collected from adaptive filter modules 56 which isanalyzed for accuracy and utility to identify interferers. Interfererscan be characterized by spectral shape, time of occurrence, frequency ofoccurrence, phase, geographic location of occurrence, and so on. At step714, the central system 750 can determine if any matches exist. A matchneed not be a perfect match. For example, a user-defined setting can beestablished where 70% or more similarity between characteristics of theprofile of a detected interferer and a known profile would be sufficientto establish a match. Other user-defined settings may be establishedaccording to performance and/or business objectives of a serviceprovider. The database can also characterize interferers by identity(e.g., a certain product type associated with the interferer), a sourceparty in control of the interferer, a behavioral pattern of recurrenceof interference from the source party and so on.

If a match exists at step 714, the central system 750 can associate atstep 718 the identified interferer with base stations detecting theidentified interferer. Such an association can be stored in the databasefor future reference at step 714 when new interference information isprocessed by the central system 750. In addition to identifyinginterferers, the central system 750 can predict recurrences ofinterferers at step 720. The central system 750 can perform this task byprocessing present and past interference information received from thebase stations at step 704 and by utilizing predictive algorithms such asregression. The predictions can include a prediction of which of thedetected interferers will have a recurrence, and in some instances, anexpected time and date of recurrence of the interferer.

At step 722, the central system 750 can determine if a user-definedevent has been triggered by the predictions of step 720. A user-definedevent can be, for example, a trigger that is activated when thepredicted recurrences exceed a threshold of recurrences, when aparticular known interferer resurfaces, when predicting that networktraffic will be adversely impacted at one or more base stations affectedby the recurrence of interferers at the predicted time of recurrence, orany other suitable trigger important to a service provider. User-definedevents such as these can be established by the service provider toachieve quality of service, reduced dropped calls, or other businessobjectives.

When a user-defined event is detected, the central system 750 can notifya field agent or other suitable personnel at step 724 of the predictedrecurrence of the interferer and can provide other important informationassociated with the interferer such as its identity, base stationsdetecting the interferer and so on. The field agent at step 726 canrequest spectral data associated with the interferer from one or morebase stations that detected the interferer. At step 728 the centralsystem 750 can receive a stream of spectral data collected in real-timeby the base stations or spectral data collected over a period of time inaccordance with the request generated by the field agent. The streamedspectral data can be presented to the field agent by the central system750 at step 728 by way of frequency plots or other suitable presentationmethods to enable the field agent to analyze the interferer. Thepresentation can take place at a computer terminal remote from theaffected base stations without requiring the field agent to travel totheir respective locations. To further assist the field agent, the agentcan request at step 730 that the central system 750 present aninterference map at step 732.

The interference map can be a geographic map that shows all interferersin the region where the affected base stations are located, or at amacro view, the interference map can cover geographic regions fromvarious vantage points such as villages, towns, cities, states or anation. The field agent can direct the central station 750 to zoom inand out of desired views of any geographic region defined by the fieldagent utilizing graphical tools suitable for such tasks. Theinterference map can present the interference map according to timeintervals so that the field agent can visualize the behavior ofinterferers at different times of the day. The interference map can alsodepict characteristics of the interferers by selecting an interfererwith a mouse pointer or simply placing the mouse pointer over theinterferer thereby causing a pop screen with relevant informationassociated with the interferer such as amplitude, phase, time ofoccurrence, frequency of occurrence, number of dropped packets when theinterferer was detected, number of dropped communication sessions (voiceor data) when the interferer was detected, and so on.

Referring back to step 722, when the user-defined event is not detected,the central system 750 can identify at step 734 correlated interferersdetected by multiple base stations. That is, in step 734, the centralsystem 750 can detect from correlation data it has gathered from thebase stations when multiple base stations are sensing the sameinterferer. Once the central system 750 has detected like interferersfrom the correlation data, it can determine at step 736 which basestations have sensed the same interferers and their respectivegeographic locations. With the geographic location of the base stations,the central system 750 can determine utilizing triangulation techniquesan approximate (or precise) location of an interference sourceassociated with each interferer and at step 724 notify the field agentof the locations of interference sources. The field agent can ifdesirable analyze the spectral information provided by the base stationsas described in steps 726-732, and/or can generate field ticketsdirected to field personnel to investigate, and if possible, mitigatethe interference by removal of the source, shielding of the source, orperform other suitable mitigation techniques.

It is contemplated that the steps of method 700 can be rearranged and/orindividually modified without departing from the scope of the claims ofthe subject disclosure. Consequently, the steps of method 700 can beperformed by a mobile communication device, a base station, a centralsystem, or any combination thereof. For example, method 700 can beadapted so that it is performed by mobile communication devices. Mobilecommunication devices can be instructed by base stations to detectinterference and provide interference information to the base stationsor central system 750. Alternatively, or in combination, the mobiledevices can be adapted to perform such tasks autonomously, and at randomintervals. The interference information can include spectral, temporal,and location information provided by mobile communication devicesutilizing a GPS receiver to assist in triangulating a location of sourceinterferers. Interference information such as this can be collected bythe central system 750 and processed according to method 700 as depictedin FIG. 19A.

FIG. 20A depicts a communication system 800 having a group of basestations 801, 805, 810. While the example depicts three base stations,any number and configuration of base stations can be utilized.Additionally, base stations 801, 805, 810 are exemplary structures thatprovide antennas for access to communication services, however, the basestations can be other structures that provide the antennas forcommunication services access, such as WIFI access points, femtocells,satellite hubs, and so forth.

The system 800 can be utilized with any number of communication devices(not shown) that are accessing communication services. The communicationdevices can be various types of devices, such as mobile devices (e.g., asmart phone, tablet, vehicle communication system, and so forth), fixedwireless communication devices, and so forth. The communication servicescan be of various types (e.g., voice, video, audio text, and/or datacommunications) and can utilize various communication protocols ortechnologies, such as LTE communication services.

In FIG. 20A, each of base stations 801, 805 and 810 can have acorresponding coverage area 802A, 806A and 811, respectively, forenabling or otherwise facilitating communication devices within thecoverage areas to access the communication services. The coverage areascan be a function of various criteria or parameters associated with anantenna of the base station, such as a direction (e.g., rotation and/ortilting) of the antenna, power, beam steering, and so forth. The basestations 801, 805 and 810 can be coupled with various components orstructure to facilitate enabling the communication services, such as aswitching station 850.

In one embodiment, interferers 825A-825E can be present within thecoverage areas 802A, 806A and 811. The source of the interferers can bevarious types, such as bi-directional amplifiers, faulty transmitters,federal and military installations, television transmissions,intermodulation from other transmitters, intermodulation from own faultycomponents and connectors, and so forth. The interferers 825A-825E canbe detected, identified or otherwise located by various means, such asby collecting interference information from a group of communicationdevices (not shown) operating in the coverage areas 802A, 806A and 811.In this example, the collected interference information can be analyzed(e.g., correlating information from different devices) in a centralizedfashion (such as at a processor that is in communication with one ormore of the base stations 801, 805, 811) or in a distributed fashion(such as at processors at each of the base stations). In one embodiment,the antennas can be smart antennas that have a processor integratedtherein to analyze the interference information and adjust antennapatterns as described herein. The communication devices providing theinterference information can be various types, such as cellular phones,laptops, other base stations, femtocells, WIFI access point devices, andso forth. In one embodiment, a profile for each of the interferers 802A,806A and 811 can be accessed or otherwise identified, which describescharacteristics of the corresponding interferer. In this example,temporal recurrences can be determined for a particular interfereraccording to the interference information corresponding to theparticular interferer, where the profile of each interferer is generatedby analyzing signal interference associated with each interfereraccording to one or more of spectral shape, amplitude, phase, time ofoccurrence, frequency of occurrence, geographic location of occurrence,or network traffic levels at a time of detection of the signalinterference. In one embodiment, the obtaining of the interferenceinformation can be according to at least one adaptive threshold fordetecting signal interference in a plurality of segments of a radiofrequency spectrum, such as signal interference in LTE communications.In another embodiment, the interference information received from theplurality of communication devices can be correlated to generatecorrelated information, and the interferers can be detected according tothe correlated information.

The system 800 enables interferer locations to be utilized foradjusting, modifying or otherwise manipulating antenna pattern(s) of anantenna(s), such as of base station 801 and/or base station 805. As anexample and referring additionally to FIG. 20B, the antenna patternassociated with base station 801 can be adjusted based on interfererlocations resulting in an adjusted coverage area 802B (which iscontrasted with the previous coverage area 802A shown in dashed lines).The adjustment of the antenna pattern for base station 801 can beperformed in a number of different ways singularly or in combination,including rotation of the antenna, tilting of the antenna, poweradjustments at the antenna, beam steering at the antenna, and so forth.The exemplary embodiments can utilize any method for adjusting theantenna pattern at base station 801 that results in the adjustedcoverage area 802B. The adjusting of the antenna of base station 801 canresult in one or more communication devices changing or switching fromutilizing the base station 801 to utilizing the base station 805 foraccessing the communication services. In one embodiment, the adjustingof the antenna of base station 801 can result in one or more interferersbeing displaced outside of the adjusted coverage area 802B of basestation 801, such as interferers 825C and 825D which are no longerpositioned within the adjusted coverage area 802B.

In one or more embodiments, traffic loads associated with the basestations 801, 805 and/or 810 can be determined, where the adjusting ofthe antenna pattern(s) (e.g., of base station 801 and/or 805) is basedon the determining of the traffic loads. In this example, the adjustingof the antenna pattern at base station 801 can cause an increase in thetraffic load at the base station 801 and a decrease in the traffic loadat base station 805 or vice versa depending on the mitigation of signalinterference that has occurred. For instance, traffic loads can bedistributed or altered such that a base station which has experienced asignal interference mitigation (e.g., due to the antenna pattern of thatbase station being adjusted so as to remove one or more interferers fromthe coverage area of that base station) can receive a higher trafficload than another base station that is experiencing the same or a higherlevel of signal interference.

Referring additionally to FIG. 20C, a second antenna pattern adjustmentcan be performed at base station 805 resulting in the adjusted coveragearea 806B. This second antenna pattern adjustment can cause one or morecommunication devices to utilize a different base station (e.g., basestation 801 and/or base station 810). In one or more embodiments, theadjusting of the second antenna pattern can cause one or moreinterferers (e.g., interferers 825A and 825B) to be displaced outside ofthe adjusted second coverage area 806B.

In one or more embodiments, interferers can be displaced to a positioncloser to the fringe of the coverage area, such as interferer 825Estaying within the adjusted coverage area 802B but being closer to theboundary of the adjusted coverage area 802B. In one or more embodiments,temporal recurrences of the interferers can be determined; and alocation of each interferer can be determined based on device locationinformation received from a plurality of communication devices that aredetecting the interference information according to at least oneadaptive threshold, where an interference map (including interfererlocations) is generated based on the temporal recurrences and theestimating of the location of each of the interferers.

The adjustment of antenna pattern(s) can be performed alone to mitigatesignal interference (e.g., interference filtering may not be utilized bybase stations in some embodiments) or can be performed in combinationwith other mitigation steps, including interference filtering. Examplesof other mitigation steps that can be performed, such as by a mobilecommunication device and/or by a base station, are described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/960,872 filed Aug. 12, 2013, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

In one embodiment, combinations of mitigation steps can be employed bythe mobile communication device and/or the base station. For example,the mobile device can receive mitigation instructions from the basestation to adjust both of its transmit power and transmit signals out ofphase from the interferer. In another example, the base station canperform beam steering, such as of received and/or transmitted signals,in an effort to avoid the interferer while also adjusting timeparameters for a resource block during an LTE session.

In another embodiment, mitigation steps can be performed in parallel bythe mobile communication device and the base station. For instance, thebase station can perform beam steering while the mobile communicationdevice transmits its signals at an adjusted phase and/or adjusted powerlevel. The particular combination of mitigation steps (whether performedindividually by one of the mobile communication device or base stationor whether performed in parallel or in series) can vary based on anumber of factors, such as the level of interference, the type ofcommunication session (e.g., LTE session), the device capability,network conditions, type of communication (e.g., voice call), and soforth. The beam steering can include beam steering for transmittedand/or received signals. In one example, the beam steering is based ondirecting a null to a desired space.

In one embodiment, data can be collected based on success of each of themitigation steps which is correlated to various factors such as the typeof interferer, network conditions, level of interference, and so forth.This correlation can then be used for determining the mitigationsstep(s) and/or determining an order of the mitigation steps. In oneembodiment, profiles associated with known recurring interferers can beprovisioned with mitigation step(s) and/or an order of mitigation stepsbased on the data collected which indicates past successful mitigationof the known recurring interferer. This provisioning can be correlatedwith various factors such as capabilities of a mobile communicationdevice, network status and so forth. As an example, the profile for aparticular interferer can include a first set of mitigation steps for afirst type of mobile phone that has first capabilities (e.g., powercapabilities, antenna steering capabilities, and so forth) and caninclude a second set of mitigation steps for a second type of mobilephone that has second capabilities. In another embodiment, the selectionof mitigation step(s) can be based on a subscriber service agreement forthe mobile communication device, such as a QoS requirement or serviceprovider specifications.

In one embodiment, the mobile communication device and/or the basestation can first attempt to avoid or otherwise mitigate theinterference (e.g., as described with respect to method 900) withoutperforming filtering, but if the mitigation does not achieve a desiredresult (e.g., does not satisfy an interference threshold) thensubsequently the mobile communication device and/or the base station canperform interference filtering.

In one embodiment, the mitigation step(s) can be selected by the basestation subject to approval by the mobile communication device orvice-versa. As an example, the base station can detect a recurringinterferer and can transmit mitigation instructions to the mobilecommunication device to raise power to mitigate the interference. Inthis example, the mobile communication device can transmit a request tothe base station for alternative mitigation step(s) such as if themobile communication device determines that it has low battery power.Continuing with this example, the base station can then select analternative mitigation step, such as advising the mobile communicationdevice to transmit signals out of phase from the interference. In thisexample, the base station and mobile communication device can negotiateto reach a mitigation plan that satisfies both the base station and themobile communication device.

In one embodiment, the mitigation step(s) can be selected to achieve acollective mitigation of interference for a group of mobilecommunication devices that are each experiencing interference from thesame interferer. For example, a base station can detect interferencefrom an interferer being experienced by a first mobile communicationdevice and can transmit mitigation instructions to the first mobilecommunication device to adjust its power and/or phase of transmittedsignals. The base station can then detect a group of additional mobilecommunication devices experiencing the interference from the interfererand can perform antenna pattern adjustment to avoid the interferer.

In one embodiment, mitigation step(s) being implemented by one or bothof the mobile communication device and the base station can be changedduring a communication session based on a number of factors, includingresource changes, network status, and so forth. As an example, a basestation can detect a recurring interference and can initially performantenna pattern adjustment to mitigate the interference for a mobilecommunication device utilizing the base station during a communicationsession. As the session continues over time, the base station may detecta large increase in network traffic or other event that requires asignificant increase in resource usage for the base station. Continuingwith this example, the base station can then transmit mitigationinstructions to the mobile communication device to cause the mobilecommunication device to perform its own mitigation steps, such as poweror transmit phase adjustments, so that the base station no longer needsto perform beam steering. As another example, a base station caninitially transmit mitigation instructions to a mobile communicationdevice that causes the mobile communication device to raise its power ina resource block during an LTE communication session. As the sessioncontinues over time, the mobile communication device may detect thatpower conservation is warranted due to low battery power and cantransmit a request to the base station for an alternative mitigationstep. Continuing with this example, the base station can then performantenna pattern adjustment to mitigate the interference so that themobile communication device can return to its original power level.

FIG. 21 depicts a method 900 for adjusting an antenna in response todetected signal interference. The method 900 can be employed for anynumber of detected interference sources, any number of antennas, and/orany number of communication devices that are accessing communicationservices via the antennas. The communication devices can be varioustypes of devices, such as mobile devices (e.g., a smart phone, tablet,vehicle communication system, and so forth), fixed wirelesscommunication devices, and so forth. The antennas can be part of one ormore base stations or can be associated with other devices or systems,such as WIFI access points, mobile communication devices acting asaccess points, and so forth. The communication services can be ofvarious types (e.g., voice, video, audio, text, and/or datacommunications) and can utilize various communication protocols ortechnologies, such as LTE communication services. The method 900 isdescribed from the perspective of a system that includes at least oneprocessor for performing (directly or indirectly) the steps of method900. The system can be located or otherwise associated with variousdevices or components, such as the system being part of: a base station,a switching station, an antenna, a mobile communication device, acentral office, and so forth.

At 902, the system can obtain interference information associated withdetecting signal interference in a wireless communication network. As anexample, interference information can be obtained according to at leastone adaptive threshold for detecting the signal interference in aplurality of resource blocks in a radio frequency spectrum of a wirelesscommunication network which provides communication services tocommunication devices. As another example, the interference informationcan be received from a plurality of communication devices (e.g., mobiledevices) that are operating in the wireless communication network.

At 904, interferers can be detected based on the interferenceinformation. In one embodiment, the interference information from thedifferent communication devices can be correlated to generate correlatedinformation where the interferers are detected based on the correlatedinformation. In another embodiment, a profile for each of theinterferers can be identified where each profile describescharacteristics of a corresponding one or more of the interferers. Inthis example, a first temporal recurrence of a first interferer of theinterferers can be identified according to the interference informationassociated with the first interferer. The profile of each of theinterferers can be generated by analyzing the signal interferenceassociated with each of the interferers according to various criteria,such as spectral shape, amplitude, phase, time of occurrence, frequencyof occurrence, geographic location of occurrence, and/or network trafficlevels at a time of detection of the signal interference.

At 906, interferer locations can be determined or otherwise approximatedfor each of the interferers. As an example, temporal recurrences of theinterferers can be identified and a location of each of the interfererscan be determined based on device location information, such as receivedfrom the plurality of communication devices that are detecting theinterference information according to the at least one adaptivethreshold. In one embodiment, an interference map of the interferers canbe generated according to the temporal recurrences and/or the estimatingof the location of each of the plurality of interferers. In anotherembodiment, an interference map that indicates the location ofinterferers in a geographic region can be generated according to method700.

At 908, a first antenna pattern of a first antenna can be adjusted. Theantenna pattern adjustment can be based on various factors including theinterferer locations. The adjusting of the first antenna pattern canchange a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted firstcoverage area, and the adjusting of the first antenna pattern can causeone or more communication devices to change from utilizing the firstantenna (e.g., at a first base station) to utilizing a second antenna(e.g., at a second base station) for accessing the communicationservices. The adjusting of the first antenna pattern can be performed invarious ways, such as one or more of adjusting a direction of the firstantenna (e.g., rotating or tilting the first antenna), beam steering,power adjustments, and so forth.

In one embodiment, the adjusting of the first antenna pattern can causeone or more interferers to be located outside of the adjusted firstcoverage area of the first antenna. In one embodiment, the adjusting ofthe first antenna pattern can be performed without filtering the signalinterference (e.g., adjusting the first antenna at a first base stationwithout the first base station performing signal filtering directed tothe signal interference).

In one embodiment at 910, traffic loads can be monitored and utilized inthe adjusting of antenna pattern(s). For example, traffic loadsassociated with first and second antennas (e.g., located at first andsecond base stations, respectively) can be determined. The adjusting ofthe first antenna pattern of the first antenna (and/or the secondantenna pattern of the second antenna) can be based on the determiningof the traffic loads, where the antenna pattern(s) adjustment can beselected in order to cause a decrease (e.g., by a particular amount) inthe traffic load at the first antenna (e.g., the first base station) andan increase (e.g., by a particular amount) in the traffic load at thesecond antenna (e.g., the second base station).

In one embodiment, a second antenna pattern of a second antenna of asecond base station can be adjusted based on the interferer locations,where the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a secondcoverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area,wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least oneinterferer of the interferers to be located outside of the adjustedsecond coverage area of the second antenna, and where a first coveragearea of the first antenna of a first base station overlaps the secondcoverage area of the second antenna of the second base station. In oneembodiment, the system performing method 900 can receive device locationinformation from each communication device, where the adjusting of thefirst antenna pattern is based on the device location information.

In one embodiment, method 900 can be utilized for particular types ofidentified interferers but not be utilized for other types ofinterferers. For example, interference mitigation via antenna patternadjustment and/or out of phase transmissions may be utilized without anyfiltering where a recurring interference from a military installation isdetected but filtering without any of the above-described avoidancetechniques may be implemented when the interferer is identified as smallproduction equipment (e.g., garage door opener).

An illustrative embodiment of a communication device 1000 is shown inFIG. 22. Communication device 1000 can serve in whole or in part as anillustrative embodiment of the devices depicted in FIGS. 1, 4, 6-8 and20A-20C. In one embodiment, the communication device 1000 can beconfigured, for example, to perform operations such as measuring a powerlevel in at least a portion of a plurality of resource blocks occurringin a radio frequency spectrum, where the measuring occurs for aplurality of time cycles to generate a plurality of power levelmeasurements, calculating a baseline power level according to at least aportion of the plurality of power levels, determining a threshold fromthe baseline power level, and monitoring at least a portion of theplurality of resource blocks for signal interference according to thethreshold. In other embodiments, the communication device 1000 canadjust antenna patterns to facilitate interference mitigation and/or toadjust traffic distributions such as increasing traffic towards a basestation that has decreased its signal interference. Other embodimentsdescribed in the subject disclosure can be used by the communicationdevice 1000.

To enable these features, communication device 1000 can comprise awireline and/or wireless transceiver 1002 (herein transceiver 1002), auser interface (UI) 1004, a power supply 1014, a location receiver 1016,a motion sensor 1018, an orientation sensor 1020, and a controller 1006for managing operations thereof. The transceiver 1002 can supportshort-range or long-range wireless access technologies such asBLUETOOTH, ZIGBEE, WIFI, DECT, or cellular communication technologies,just to mention a few. Cellular technologies can include, for example,CDMA-1X, UMTS/HSDPA, GSM/GPRS, TDMA/EDGE, EV/DO, WIMAX, SDR, LTE, aswell as other next generation wireless communication technologies asthey arise. The transceiver 1002 can also be adapted to supportcircuit-switched wireline access technologies (such as PSTN),packet-switched wireline access technologies (such as TCP/IP, VoIP,etc.), and combinations thereof.

The UI 1004 can include a depressible or touch-sensitive keypad 1008with a navigation mechanism such as a roller ball, a joystick, a mouse,or a navigation disk for manipulating operations of the communicationdevice 1000. The keypad 1008 can be an integral part of a housingassembly of the communication device 1000 or an independent deviceoperably coupled thereto by a tethered wireline interface (such as a USBcable) or a wireless interface supporting for example BLUETOOTH. Thekeypad 1008 can represent a numeric keypad commonly used by phones,and/or a QWERTY keypad with alphanumeric keys. The UI 1004 can furtherinclude a display 1010 such as monochrome or color LCD (Liquid CrystalDisplay), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) or other suitable displaytechnology for conveying images to an end user of the communicationdevice 1000. In an embodiment where the display 1010 is touch-sensitive,a portion or all of the keypad 1008 can be presented by way of thedisplay 1010 with navigation features.

To enable these features, communication device 1000 can comprise awireline and/or wireless transceiver 1002 (herein transceiver 1002), auser interface (UI) 1004, a power supply 1014, a location receiver 1016,a motion sensor 1018, an orientation sensor 1020, and a controller 1006for managing operations thereof. The transceiver 1002 can supportshort-range or long-range wireless access technologies such asBLUETOOTH®, ZIGBEE®, WIFI™, Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications(DECT™), or cellular communication technologies, just to mention a few.Cellular technologies can include, for example, CDMA-1X, UMTS/HSDPA,GSM/GPRS, TDMA/EDGE, EV/DO, Worldwide Interoperability for MicrowaveAccess (WIMAX™), SDR, LTE, as well as other next generation wirelesscommunication technologies as they arise. The transceiver 1002 can alsobe adapted to support circuit-switched wireline access technologies(such as PSTN), packet-switched wireline access technologies (such asTCP/IP, VoIP, etc.), and combinations thereof.

The UI 1004 can also include an audio system 1012 that utilizes audiotechnology for conveying low volume audio (such as audio heard inproximity of a human ear) and high volume audio (such as speakerphonefor hands free operation). The audio system 1012 can further include amicrophone for receiving audible signals of an end user. The audiosystem 1012 can also be used for voice recognition applications. The UI1004 can further include an image sensor 1013 such as a charged coupleddevice (CCD) camera for capturing still or moving images.

The power supply 1014 can utilize common power management technologiessuch as replaceable and rechargeable batteries, supply regulationtechnologies, and/or charging system technologies for supplying energyto the components of the communication device 1000 to facilitatelong-range or short-range portable applications. Alternatively, or incombination, the charging system can utilize external power sources suchas DC power supplied over a physical interface such as a USB port orother suitable tethering technologies.

The location receiver 1016 can utilize location technology such as aglobal positioning system (GPS) receiver capable of assisted GPS foridentifying a location of the communication device 1000 based on signalsgenerated by a constellation of GPS satellites, which can be used forfacilitating location services such as navigation. The motion sensor1018 can utilize motion sensing technology such as an accelerometer, agyroscope, or other suitable motion sensing technology to detect motionof the communication device 1000 in three-dimensional space. Theorientation sensor 1020 can utilize orientation sensing technology suchas a magnetometer to detect the orientation of the communication device1000 (north, south, west, and east, as well as combined orientations indegrees, minutes, or other suitable orientation metrics).

The communication device 1000 can use the transceiver 1002 to alsodetermine a proximity to a cellular, WIFI, BLUETOOTH, or other wirelessaccess points by sensing techniques such as utilizing a received signalstrength indicator (RSSI) and/or signal time of arrival (TOA) or time offlight (TOF) measurements. The controller 1006 can utilize computingtechnologies such as a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP),programmable gate arrays, application specific integrated circuits,and/or a video processor with associated storage memory such as Flash,ROM, RAM, SRAM, DRAM or other storage technologies for executingcomputer instructions, controlling, and processing data supplied by theaforementioned components of the communication device 400.

Other components not shown in FIG. 22 can be used in one or moreembodiments of the subject disclosure. For instance, the communicationdevice 1000 can include a reset button (not shown). The reset button canbe used to reset the controller 1006 of the communication device 1000.In yet another embodiment, the communication device 1000 can alsoinclude a factory default setting button positioned, for example, belowa small hole in a housing assembly of the communication device 1000 toforce the communication device 1000 to re-establish factory settings. Inthis embodiment, a user can use a protruding object such as a pen orpaper clip tip to reach into the hole and depress the default settingbutton. The communication device 1000 can also include a slot for addingor removing an identity module such as a Subscriber Identity Module(SIM) card. SIM cards can be used for identifying subscriber services,executing programs, storing subscriber data, and so forth.

The communication device 1000 as described herein can operate with moreor less of the circuit components shown in FIG. 22. These variantembodiments can be used in one or more embodiments of the subjectdisclosure.

It should be understood that devices described in the exemplaryembodiments can be in communication with each other via various wirelessand/or wired methodologies. The methodologies can be links that aredescribed as coupled, connected and so forth, which can includeunidirectional and/or bidirectional communication over wireless pathsand/or wired paths that utilize one or more of various protocols ormethodologies, where the coupling and/or connection can be direct (e.g.,no intervening processing device) and/or indirect (e.g., an intermediaryprocessing device such as a router).

FIG. 23 depicts an exemplary diagrammatic representation of a machine inthe form of a computer system 1100 within which a set of instructions,when executed, may cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethods described above. One or more instances of the machine canoperate, for example, as the devices of FIGS. 1, 4, 6-8 and 20A-20C. Forexample, the machine can perform one or more of obtaining interferenceinformation (such as according to at least one adaptive threshold fordetecting signal interference in a plurality of resource blocks in aradio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providingcommunication services to a plurality of communication devices),correlate the interference information to generate correlatedinformation, detect a plurality of interferers according to thecorrelated information, determine interferer locations for each of theplurality of interferers, or adjust a first antenna pattern of a firstantenna of a first base station based on the interferer locations.

In some embodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., using a network1126) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine mayoperate in the capacity of a server or a client user machine inserver-client user network environment, or as a peer machine in apeer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may comprise a server computer, a client user computer, apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a smart phone, a laptop computer, adesktop computer, a control system, a network router, switch or bridge,or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. It will beunderstood that a communication device of the subject disclosureincludes broadly any electronic device that provides voice, video ordata communication. Further, while a single machine is illustrated, theterm “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machinesthat individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) ofinstructions to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein.

The computer system 1100 may include a processor (or controller) 1102(e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU,or both), a main memory 1104 and a static memory 1106, which communicatewith each other via a bus 1108. The computer system 1100 may furtherinclude a display unit 1110 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), aflat panel, or a solid state display. The computer system 1100 mayinclude an input device 1112 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device1114 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 1116, a signal generation device1118 (e.g., a speaker or remote control) and a network interface device1120. In distributed environments, the embodiments described in thesubject disclosure can be adapted to utilize multiple display units 1110controlled by two or more computer systems 1100. In this configuration,presentations described by the subject disclosure may in part be shownin a first of the display units 1110, while the remaining portion ispresented in a second of the display units 1110.

The disk drive unit 1116 may include a tangible computer-readablestorage medium 1122 on which is stored one or more sets of instructions(e.g., software 1124) embodying any one or more of the methods orfunctions described herein, including those methods illustrated above.The instructions 1124 may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 1104, the static memory 1106, and/or within theprocessor 1102 during execution thereof by the computer system 1100. Themain memory 1104 and the processor 1102 also may constitute tangiblecomputer-readable storage media.

Dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to,application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays andother hardware devices that can likewise be constructed to implement themethods described herein. Application specific integrated circuits andprogrammable logic array can use downloadable instructions for executingstate machines and/or circuit configurations to implement embodiments ofthe subject disclosure. Applications that may include the apparatus andsystems of various embodiments broadly include a variety of electronicand computer systems. Some embodiments implement functions in two ormore specific interconnected hardware modules or devices with relatedcontrol and data signals communicated between and through the modules,or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Thus, theexample system is applicable to software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the subject disclosure, theoperations or methods described herein are intended for operation assoftware programs or instructions running on or executed by a computerprocessor or other computing device, and which may include other formsof instructions manifested as a state machine implemented with logiccomponents in an application specific integrated circuit or fieldprogrammable gate array. Furthermore, software implementations (e.g.,software programs, instructions, etc.) including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the methods described herein. It is furthernoted that a computing device such as a processor, a controller, a statemachine or other suitable device for executing instructions to performoperations or methods may perform such operations directly or indirectlyby way of one or more intermediate devices directed by the computingdevice.

While the tangible computer-readable storage medium 822 is shown in anexample embodiment to be a single medium, the term “tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a singlemedium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database,and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets ofinstructions. The term “tangible computer-readable storage medium” shallalso be taken to include any non-transitory medium that is capable ofstoring or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methods ofthe subject disclosure. The term “non-transitory” as in a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage includes without limitation memories, drives,devices and anything tangible but not a signal per se.

The term “tangible computer-readable storage medium” shall accordinglybe taken to include, but not be limited to: solid-state memories such asa memory card or other package that houses one or more read-only(non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or other re-writable(volatile) memories, a magneto-optical or optical medium such as a diskor tape, or other tangible media which can be used to store information.Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include any one or more ofa tangible computer-readable storage medium, as listed herein andincluding art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which thesoftware implementations herein are stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the disclosure is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packet switchednetwork transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP) representexamples of the state of the art. Such standards are from time-to-timesuperseded by faster or more efficient equivalents having essentiallythe same functions. Wireless standards for device detection (e.g.,RFID), short-range communications (e.g., BLUETOOTH®, WIFI, ZIGBEE®), andlong-range communications (e.g., WIMAX, GSM, CDMA, LTE) can be used bycomputer system 1100.

The illustrations of embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of various embodiments,and they are not intended to serve as a complete description of all theelements and features of apparatus and systems that might make use ofthe structures described herein. Many other embodiments will be apparentto those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. Theexemplary embodiments can include combinations of features and/or stepsfrom multiple embodiments. Other embodiments may be utilized and derivedtherefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Figuresare also merely representational and may not be drawn to scale. Certainproportions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimizedAccordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any arrangement calculated toachieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodimentsshown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all adaptations orvariations of various embodiments. Combinations of the aboveembodiments, and other embodiments not specifically described herein,can be used in the subject disclosure. In one or more embodiments,features that are positively recited can also be excluded from theembodiment with or without replacement by another component or step. Thesteps or functions described with respect to the exemplary processes ormethods can be performed in any order. The steps or functions describedwith respect to the exemplary processes or methods can be performedalone or in combination with other steps or functions (from otherembodiments or from other steps that have not been described).

Less than all of the steps or functions described with respect to theexemplary processes or methods can also be performed in one or more ofthe exemplary embodiments. Further, the use of numerical terms todescribe a device, component, step or function, such as first, second,third, and so forth, is not intended to describe an order or functionunless expressly stated so. The use of the terms first, second, thirdand so forth, is generally to distinguish between devices, components,steps or functions unless expressly stated otherwise. Additionally, oneor more devices or components described with respect to the exemplaryembodiments can facilitate one or more functions, where the facilitating(e.g., facilitating access or facilitating establishing a connection)can include less than every step needed to perform the function or caninclude all of the steps needed to perform the function.

In one or more embodiments, a processor (which can include a controlleror circuit) has been described that performs various functions. Itshould be understood that the processor can be multiple processors,which can include distributed processors or parallel processors in asingle machine or multiple machines. The processor can be used insupporting a virtual processing environment. The virtual processingenvironment may support one or more virtual machines representingcomputers, servers, or other computing devices. In such virtualmachines, components such as microprocessors and storage devices may bevirtualized or logically represented. The processor can include a statemachine, application specific integrated circuit, and/or programmablegate array including a Field PGA. In one or more embodiments, when aprocessor executes instructions to perform “operations”, this caninclude the processor performing the operations directly and/orfacilitating, directing, or cooperating with another device or componentto perform the operations.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided with the understanding thatit will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of theclaims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can beseen that various features are grouped together in a single embodimentfor the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method ofdisclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that theclaimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited ineach claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subjectmatter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment.Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimedsubject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: obtaining, by a processingsystem comprising a processor, interference information affecting aplurality of base stations, wherein the interference information isobtained from a plurality of mobile communication devices incommunication with the plurality of base stations, wherein the pluralityof base stations is subject to interference caused by an interferer of aplurality of interferers external to the plurality of base stations,wherein the plurality of mobile communication devices filter theinterference information according to an adaptive threshold to detectsignal interference in a plurality of spectral segments in a radiofrequency spectrum of a wireless communication system; correlating, bythe processing system, the interference information obtained from theplurality of mobile communication devices to generate correlatedinformation; determining, by the processing system, an interfererlocation of the interferer of the plurality of interferers according tothe correlated information; predicting, by the processing system,recurrent interference caused by the interferer of the plurality ofinterferers; and adjusting, by the processing system, a first antennapattern of a first antenna of a first base station of the plurality ofbase stations to generate an adjusted coverage area, wherein theadjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a change to the interfererlocation relative to a boundary of the adjusted coverage area thatreduces interference caused by the interferer.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern further compriseschanging a first coverage area of the first antenna to obtain anadjusted first coverage area that is smaller than the first coveragearea, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern results inthe interferer of the plurality of interferers being located at least inpart outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the first antennapattern causes one or more mobile communication devices of the pluralityof mobile communication devices to change from utilizing the first basestation to utilizing a second base station for communication services.4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining, by theprocessing system, a first traffic load associated with the first basestation and a second traffic load associated with the second basestation, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based onthe first traffic load and the second traffic load, and wherein theadjusting of the first antenna pattern causes an increase in the secondtraffic load at the second base station.
 5. The method of claim 4,further comprising: adjusting, by the processing system, a secondantenna pattern of a second antenna of the second base station based ona determined location of another interferer of the plurality ofinterferers, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changesa second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted secondcoverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna patternresults in the another interferer of the plurality of interferers beinglocated at least in part outside of the adjusted second coverage area ofthe second antenna.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting ofthe first antenna pattern causes the interferer location to bepositioned closer to the boundary of the adjusted coverage area.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna patterncauses the interferer location to remain within the adjusted coveragearea.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the recurrent interferencecaused by the interferer of the plurality of interferers is determinedby detecting a temporal recurrence of the interferer according to aspectral profile associated with the interferer of the plurality ofinterferers.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the correlating furthercomprises: determining, by the processing system, temporal recurrencesof the plurality of interferers; estimating, by the processing system, alocation of each interferer of the plurality of interferers; andgenerating, by the processing system, an interference map of theplurality of interferers according to the temporal recurrences and theestimating of the location of each interferer of the plurality ofinterferers.
 10. A machine-readable storage medium, comprisingexecutable instructions that, when executed by a processing systemincluding a processor, facilitate performance of operations, theoperations comprising: obtaining interference information affecting aplurality of antenna locations from a plurality of mobile communicationdevices, wherein the plurality of antenna locations is subject tointerference caused by an interferer of a plurality of interferersexternal to the plurality of antenna locations, wherein the plurality ofmobile communication devices filter the interference informationaccording to an adaptive threshold to detect signal interference in aplurality of spectral segments in a radio frequency spectrum of awireless communication system; correlating the interference informationobtained from the plurality of mobile communication devices to generatecorrelated information; determining an estimated interferer location ofthe interferer of the plurality of interferers according to thecorrelated information; generating an interference map for the interfereof the plurality of interferers according to the estimated interfererlocation; and adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at afirst location of the plurality of antenna locations to generate anadjusted coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the first antennapattern causes a change to the estimated interferer location relative toa boundary of the adjusted coverage area that reduces interferencecaused by the interferer.
 11. The machine-readable storage medium ofclaim 10, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes acommunication device to change from utilizing the first antenna toutilizing a second antenna at a second location of the plurality ofantenna locations for accessing communication services.
 12. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the interferenceinformation is determined according to signal interference occurring inthe plurality of spectral segments of the wireless communication system,wherein the first antenna is coupled to a first base station, whereinthe second antenna is coupled to a second base station, and wherein eachspectral segment of the plurality of spectral segments is utilized forcommunications conforming to a long-term evolution protocol.
 13. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the adjusting ofthe first antenna pattern causes a decrease in a first traffic load atthe first antenna, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna patternresults in a detected interferer being located at least in part outsideof the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna, and whereinthe operations further comprise determining the first traffic loadassociated with the first antenna and a second traffic load associatedwith the second antenna, wherein the adjusting of the first antennapattern is based on the first and second traffic loads.
 14. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: adjusting a second antenna pattern of the secondantenna of the plurality of antenna locations based on the interferencemap, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes asecond coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted secondcoverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna patternresults in a detected interferer of the plurality of interferers to belocated at least in part outside of the adjusted second coverage area ofthe second antenna, and wherein the adjusting of the first antennapattern causes an increase in a second traffic load associated with thesecond antenna.
 15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10,wherein the obtaining of the interference information further comprisesreceiving the interference information from the plurality of mobilecommunication devices that are generating the interference informationaccording to interference detected in the plurality of spectral segmentsof the wireless communication system, and wherein the operations furthercomprise: correlating the interference information of the plurality ofmobile communication devices to generate correlated information; anddetecting the plurality of interferers according to the correlatedinformation, wherein the generating of the interference map is based onthe correlated information.
 16. The machine-readable storage medium ofclaim 10, wherein the operations further comprise: determining temporalrecurrences of the plurality of interferers; and estimating a locationof each of the plurality of interferers, wherein the generating of theinterference map is based on the temporal recurrences and the estimatingof the location of each of the plurality of interferers.
 17. An antennasystem, comprising: a processing system including a processor; and amemory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by theprocessing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operationscomprising: receiving interference information from a plurality ofmobile communication devices for a plurality of interferers, wherein theplurality of mobile communication devices filter the interferenceinformation according to an adaptive threshold to detect signalinterference in a plurality of spectral segments in a radio frequencyspectrum of a wireless communication system; determining, in accordancewith the interference information, recurrent interference caused by anidentified interferer of the plurality of interferers: correlating theinterference information obtained from the plurality of mobilecommunication devices to generate correlated information; determining anapproximate location of the identified interferer of the plurality ofinterferers according to the correlated information; and adjusting anantenna pattern to generate an adjusted coverage area, wherein theadjusting of the antenna pattern causes a change to the approximatelocation of the identified interferer relative to a boundary of theadjusted coverage area that reduces interference caused by theidentified interferer.
 18. The antenna system of claim 17, wherein theadjusting of the antenna pattern comprises one or more of a rotation ofan antenna of the antenna system, a tilting of the antenna, a poweradjustment at the antenna, beam steering at the antenna, andcombinations thereof.
 19. The antenna system of claim 17, wherein theoperations further comprise: sending instructions to an associatedantenna system to adjust a second antenna pattern of the associatedantenna system based on the approximate location of the plurality ofinterferers, wherein the associated antenna system adjusts a secondcoverage area of an associated antenna of the associated antenna systemto an adjusted associated coverage area to place the identifiedinterferer of the plurality of interferers to be partially outside ofthe adjusted associated coverage area of the associated antenna system.20. The antenna system of claim 19, wherein the operations furthercomprise: determining a traffic load associated with the antenna systemand a second traffic load associated with the associated antenna system,wherein the adjusting of the antenna pattern is based on the trafficload and the second traffic load, and wherein the adjusting of theantenna pattern is performed to increase the second traffic load at theassociated antenna system.